Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Marie Arendt
Categories
Historical adventure fiction

THE SWEETNESS OF WATER

Nathan Harris

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 white farmer 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 to the town of Old Ox from the war, hold their trysts in the woods. But when their secret is discovered, the resulting chaos brings convulsive repercussions for the entire community. 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. Nathan Harris, a native of Oregon, is a Michener Fellow at the University of Texas. He was awarded the Kidd Prize, as judged by Anthony Doerr, and was also a finalist for the Tennessee Williams Fiction Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Available products
Book Published 2021-06-15 by Little Brown

Comments

Editions Philippe Rey (France), Alianza (world Spanish), Novo Seculo (Brazil), Eichborn (Germany), Libri (Hungary), Nutrimenti (Italy)

What a gifted, assured writer Nathan Harris is. He does what all novelists are supposed to do - give birth to vivid characters, people worth caring about, and then get out of their way. The result is better than any debut novel has a right to be. With THE SWEETNESS OF WATER, Harris has, in a sense, unwritten GONE WITH THE WIND, detonating its phony romanticism, its unearned sympathies, its wretched racism.

Harris writes in intelligent, down-to-earth prose and shows a keen understanding of his characters, and while the plot leads to several tragic events, there's a tinge of hope at the end. This character study is credible and deeply moving. Read more...

"Miraculous debut" is in the headline. "That this powerful book is Nathan Harris's debut novel is remarkable; that he's only 29 is miraculous. His prose is burnished with an antique patina that evokes the mid-19th century. And he explores this liminal moment in our history with extraordinary sensitivity to the range of responses from Black and White Americans contending with a revolutionary ideal of personhood. . . . All of this is drawn with gorgeous fidelity to these cautious characters, struggling to remake the world, or at least this little patch of it. . . . Harris stacks the timbers of this plot deliberately, and the moment a spark alights, the whole structure begins to burn hot. Old secrets and passions reassert themselves, and George learns that his determination to treat a pair of Black men with respect is an affront that his neighbors cannot abide. What's most impressive about Harris's novel is how he attends to the lives of these peculiar people while capturing the tectonic tensions at play in the American South." And ends: "But if this is an era and a genre that has no room for encouragement, "The Sweetness of Water" is finally willing to carve out a little oasis of hope."

Harris writes with the confidence and command of a seasoned master of the craft. And, of course, the magic of his sentences is in the detailseverything is historically accurate and painstakingly researched, whether he's describing the reprieve of a fresh tick mattress or the complexity of growing peanuts in Georgia soil. This novel is simply the best I have read in years.

Great piece about Nathan Harris and the writing of his book, THE SWEETNESS OF WATER. ...Realizing how little he knew about the period in American history right after emancipation, Harris says he started thinking about the repercussions of the enslaved suddenly becoming free, and what that freedom meant when there were no guidelines to help navigate the change. "What did it feel like to be these people in this time in history?" Harris asks. "The power of imagination is very strong. I've written my own story, sourced it from the air. I wanted to immerse readers in that world, rural Georgia in 1865." The novel expanded to explore many issues the nation faced at that time, and in it Harris looks at class, identity, and society... Read more...

"A historical page-turner about social friction so powerful it ignites a whole town. . . The novel's questions feel urgent . . . Like a fictional companion to Clint Smith's history,How the Word Is Passed,The Sweetness of Waterjoins the national conversation on race and reckoning with history . . .Nathan Harris makes those extraordinary, still-contested times comprehensible through immersive, incredibly humane storytelling about the lives of ordinary people. . . Hope is the driving force inThe Sweetness of Water . .. Harris spins an increasingly complex tale about the postwar South, and he tells it in a humane and intimate way, by exploring interpersonal relationships of all kinds in and around this rural Georgia town. They're all connected and interdependent; a fracture or ripple in one inevitably affects the others . . . And even though the story focuses on hope and unexpected kinship, it doesn't diminish the horrors of slavery or the struggle in its wake. The events of the brothers' former lives are never far from memorywhipping, beating, disfiguring physical abuse, family separation, near starvation, dehumanization. None of that is denied. None of it is minimized. But like the brothers, Harris tries to train the focus elsewhere for a time.As an act of pure storytelling,The Sweetness of Watersoars . . . The novel is a riveting drama-filled exploration of a fracture and a healing . . .The Sweetness of Waterleaves a lasting and multifaceted impression: It's warm and absorbing, thought-provoking and humane."

Harris's lucid prose and vivid characterization illustrate a community at war with itself, poisoned by pride and mired in racial and sexual bigotry. Reconstruction will prove to be yet another lie. Harris's first novel is an aching chronicle of loss, cruelty, and love in the wake of community devastation. Read more...

Nathan Harris is, plainly, one of the most exciting new writers I've read in years. He has a profound understanding of the human souland of the vast variety of human souls on the earthand writes sentences of immense beauty and strangeness. His work is funny and wrenching, brilliant and exact.The Sweetness of Wateris an extraordinary book, and just the start of an extraordinary career.

5 Under 35 honoree

Gorgeous and deeply affecting in the tradition of James McBride and Colson Whitehead, but the book's unforgettable gift isNathanHarris's unique voice and breathtaking vision. I cannot recall such an assured, accomplished, or extraordinarily imagined debut. Trust me, reader:Harrisis a novelist of the highest order, a writer with impossibly rare talents and still rarer heart.

"This stunning debut novel probes the limits of freedom in a society where ingrained prejudice and inequality remain the law of the land."

To open Nathan Harris's first novel is to enter a trance. I can't think of any other book out there quite like it. The richness of his language and the exquisite details of the lives he creates produce a kind of waking dream, equally lyrical and threatening.