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On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp—an area known as "The Waters" to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan—herbalist and eccentric Hermine "Herself" Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest—the beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thorn—has left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy "Donkey" Zook, to grow up wild.
Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. Rage simmers below the surface of this divided community, and those on both sides of the divide have closed their doors against the enemy. The only bridge across the waters is Rose Thorn.
With a "ruthless and precise eye for the details of the physical world" (Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review), Bonnie Jo Campbell presents an elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life.
"Bonnie Jo Campbell's The Waters is a novel, a living myth, and a place. ...
Imagine a mash-up of Flannery O'Connor and the Brothers Grimm, of Angela Carter's reimagined fairy tales and William Faulkner's gothic sublime. And yet, The Waters is all Bonnie Jo. ..."—DIANE SEUSS, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frank: Sonnets
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 9, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798891781634
- File size: 422566 KB
- Duration: 14:40:20
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 6, 2023
The evocative if meandering latest from Campbell (Mothers, Tell Your Daughters) portrays an herbalist and her family living off the grid on a swamp-enclosed Michigan island, a gauzy out-of-time setting meant to suggest a realm of myth. Hermine “Herself” Zook has long made herbal medicines with the help of her mother’s ghost. Some on the mainland see her as a witch, however, and no one knows why she banished her husband from the island 15 years earlier. After Rose Thorn, 18, the youngest of Herself’s three adult daughters, gives birth to a baby girl named Donkey, Rose Thorn confides to Herself that Donkey is not the daughter of her boyfriend Titus Clay Jr., but the result of a rape by his father. Rose Thorn pleads with Herself not to tell anyone, and Herself raises Donkey in the family’s island cottage. Rose Thorn spends most of her time with her sister in California while her daughter yearns for her to reappear and marry Titus Jr. At 11, Donkey must contend with news of her mother’s breast cancer and revelations about her family’s lineage. Baggy writing, drawn-out scenes, and twee character names aren’t doing this story any favors, but Campbell’s immersive descriptions manage to suck the reader into its swampy setting. Patient readers will be carried away. -
Actor Lili Taylor brings a wry warmth to her narration of Campbell's latest, set in Michigan's Great Massasauga Swamp, where a family contends with secrets and intergenerational trauma. Taylor portrays imperious Hermine Zook, who is raising her 11-year-old granddaughter, Dorothy, nicknamed Donkey, on a secluded island in the middle of the swamp. When tragedy strikes, Donkey's relationship with her flighty mother and her opinionated, occasionally prickly aunts comes to a head. Though Taylor provides an appealing portrait of this unusual family, listeners may wish for better character differentiation, as the voices are quite similar in tone and presentation. Additionally, Taylor's frequent mouth sounds and inconsistent pronunciations distract listeners. Even so, her depiction of the family's deep love for each other and the land resonates. S.A.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
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