We are pleased to congratulate Ian McGuire on winning the 2017 RSL Encore Award for THE NORTH WATER! The £10,000 prize has been awarded annually since 1990 for the year’s best second novel. In the words of Chair of Judges Alex Clark: “The North Water works by disorientation, from its violent opening scenes to its voyage through high seas and blocks of ice; it creates a series of unstable, dangerous environments, and peoples them with the good, the bad and all points in between.” RSL Encore Award 2017 Press Release Julia Copus, a judge for the award, commented: “Comparisons with great seafaring novels of the past are inevitable and valid, and yet it’s the riveting, closing scenes, set on dry land and played out with cinematic immediacy, that make this book what it is. I have never read anything quite like it.” For more information about THE NORTH WATER, which was also longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, visit Ian McGuire’s website: http://thenorthwater.net/