I found in Groundwater a ruthless and minutely observed reckoning with the stories, beliefs, and places we make to shelter from fear of death. What it revealed was a world where people find themselves accidentally sheltering from life. Where humans might use one another, including the unborn, to keep the inscrutable in check, wring meaning from the outsized and mysterious, Groundwater masterfully and subtly begins to re-enchant all that we have reduced

AMBER HUSAIN

So dreamlike and yet so tense – a heady combination beautifully balanced by McMullan. This is a novel that gets right under your skin

ELLA FREARS

Praise for The Last Good Man: A Scarlet Letter for our times

MARGARET ATWOOD

Recalling the smack-in-the-face technique of early Ian McEwan … Viciously captivating: frightening to be around, impossible to put aside

GUARDIAN

A visceral and disquieting debut novel about the power of words

NEW STATESMAN

McMullan makes highly effective use of the rugged landscape, full of unease and portents, in his creepily unsettling debut, a timely tale about the dangers of toxic rhetoric and mob rule

DAILY MAIL