A companion piece to his Man Booker-longlisted Reservoir 13, McGregors latest works perfectly well as a standalone, offering an alternately sweet and suspenseful depiction of a community as it reacts, person by person, to the disappearance of a teenage girl. Entertainment Weekly
Each villager has a memory to share or a secret to conceal, a connection to Becky that they are trying to make or break. A young wife pushes against the boundaries of her marriage, and another seeks a means of surviving within hers. A group of teenagers dare one another to jump into a flooded quarry, the weakest swimmer still awaiting his turn. A laborer lies trapped under rocks and dry limestone dust as his fellow workers attempt a risky rescue. And meanwhile a fractured portrait of Becky emerges at the edges of our visiona girl swimming, climbing, and smearing dirt onto a scared boys face, images to be cherished and challenged as the search for her goes on.
Returning us to the extraordinary territory of Jon McGregors Man Booker Prize-longlisted novel Reservoir 13, The Reservoir Tapes take us deep into the heart of an English village that is trying to come to terms with what has happened on its watch.
