The Sweetness of Water: A Novel

About this book

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER / AN OPRAHS BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF PRESIDENT OBAMAS FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence Winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction Shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Carnegie Medal for Excellence Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Longlisted for the Crooks Corner Book Prize In the spirit of The Known World and The Underground Railroad a miraculous debut (Washington Post) and a towering achievement of imagination (CBS This Morning)about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives and his foreverfrom a storyteller with bountiful insight and assurance (Kirkus) A Best Book of the Year: Oprah Daily NPR Washington Post Time Boston Globe Smithsonian Chicago Public Library BookBrowse and the Oregonian A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice A July Indie Next Pick In the waning days of the Civil War brothers Prentiss and Landryfreed by the Emancipation Proclamationseek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife Isabelle. The Walkers wracked by the loss of their only son to the war hire the brothers to work their farm hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry meanwhile plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother who was sold away when they were boys. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. The young men recently returned from the war to the town of Old Ox hold their trysts in the woods. But when their secret is discovered the resulting chaos including a murder unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community. In the aftermath of so much turmoil it is Isabelle who emerges as an unlikely leader proffering a healing vision for the land and for the newly free citizens of Old Ox. With candor and sympathy debut novelist Nathan Harris creates an unforgettable cast of characters depicting Georgia in the violent crucible of Reconstruction. Equal parts beauty and terror as gripping as it is moving The Sweetness of Water is an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.