Jun 20

Jun 20 The Sweetness of Water

Author: Nathan Harris
Publisher: Little, Brown
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

In the spirit of The Known World and The Underground Railroad, a profound debut about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives, and his, forever.

In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek 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.

TL;DR Review

I found The Sweetness of Water to be easy to sink into, a compelling story. I’m not sure I would have put it on the Booker longlist, myself, but I did like it. (PSA: It’s not a queer story, as the cover blurb suggests.)

For you if: You like historical fiction.

Full Review

I read The Sweetness of Water because it was longlisted for last year’s Booker Prize. It was one I was most eager to read, particularly because the cover blurb positioned it as a partially queer novel set during American reconstruction. Unfortunately, this is a significant mischaracterization. Fortunately, I was warned beforehand and was able to go into the reading experience without that errant expectation.

The story is about two brothers, recently freed from the institution of slavery, who find themselves in the woods of George and Isabel Walker, who are white. (Minor spoiler ahead.) When their son, against all odds, returns from the Civil War, it sets off a violent chain reaction that leaves our characters’ lives overturned, and exposes just how far their town still has to go.

I read this book in just a few sittings — I sank into it easily and found myself swept up in first the characters, then the story (as the first and second halves of the book seem to focus on those things one at a time, respectively). The prose, too, is beautifully written. I think it had some interesting things to say about masculinity and deciding to speak up for what you feel to be right even when you know it’s the self-destructive thing to do. That said, as many of my fellow book club members expressed, the reader is left uncertain what Harris’s thesis is — because if it’s the obvious one, we remained a bit unconvinced.

All in all, a solid read if you need something compelling, although I’m not sure I’d have put it on the Booker list myself.