Are you a member of a book club? If so, do you meet virtually or in person?

I attend a book club run by Pangur Bán Bookshop in conjunction with Craoibhín Ballina. We meet in person once a month.

At our book club meeting last night we talked about Water by John Boyne. Have you read it? What did you think?

The Blurb:

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.

But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?

Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did – and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

Book Club Discussion

Water is a novella; 166 pages.

We had ten readers present at our December meeting and only one out of the ten didn’t like the book. However, she did read it and ‘got ‘it’ by the time she was finished. Starting off, she thought to herself, a woman escaping from her problems to an island, heard it all before. But it’s told from a different perspective than we’re used to.

The main character in the book is a woman, Willow. We praised John Boyne for his ability to get inside a woman’s head. Not too many male writers succeed in writing from a female’s POV as skilfully as John Boyne has done here.

The question was raised; did she know what was happening in relation to her husband’s crime? Did she blank out the possibilities that her husband could be capable of such a thing?

We thought that perhaps because Willow was so caught up in her busy and ‘perfect’ lifestyle, she ignored what was going on around her. She wasn’t fully present when it came to her daughters. She didn’t listen to Emma. Emma’s sister Rebecca listened but she didn’t believe, and both Willow and Rebecca are suffering the consequences. They hold a terrible guilt inside themselves because they let Emma down.

But can Willow be blamed for her husband’s crime? Was she complicit? In a sense, maybe she was. If only she had listened! If only she had taken more notice.

We see cases like this all too often. Hate towards family members of the perpetrators, in particular the wife. Oh, the wife knew… she had to have known… they covered it up…

No one ever wants to believe or even think that the person they love and trust could be capable of such crimes. And we must remember, these people are very good at covering up for themselves.

The perpetrator might do time for the crime, but the family are handed a life sentence and the stigma that comes with it. There are many lives ruined. Too many.

Was Brendan sentenced to enough time in prison? Absolutely not!

Even after his conviction he continued to plead his innocence. But he was as guilty as the day is long!

My Thoughts

John Boyne’s s writing is beautiful. He gets the story across without a load of unnecessary fluff. It flows so well that never have I been pulled out of his stories because of purple prose or lack of punctuation. (Yes, that’s becoming a ‘thing’ with writers, I’ve noticed. I won’t talk about it right now.)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Water. I was intrigued from the very beginning. We always want to know exactly why a woman is running away and changing her identity. Who or what is she running from? Herself, someone else, a situation? I was well into the book before I sort of guessed what her husband did. But I still wasn’t sure until the reveal.

I didn’t warm to Willow, or feel very much sympathy for her. Once or twice, maybe. I did empathise with her though, and so many other women in her position.

Would I recommend this book?

I would recommend it to those who enjoy a short read (novellas), those who like the story told from one POV, a slow reveal, facing and dealing with trauma, small town and rural fiction.

Not for everyone as it deals with disturbing issues.

Water is the first in a series of four. Earth is due to be published in May 2024.

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