Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home.

Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed.

The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.

An extraordinary novel of cumulative power and grace, Reservoir 13 explores the rhythms of the natural world and the repeated human gift for violence, unfolding over thirteen years as the aftershocks of a stranger’s tragedy refuse to subside.

A very calm and gentle novel - just what I needed after a few stressful weeks with in house renovations going on. The slow and gentle pace telling the villager's life over 13 years after the disappearance of a young girl was compelling to read even though I sometimes felt I was in an episode of BBC Countryfile. But life goes on, the seasons change and in the end this is what we all do too