Water Lily

by Susanna Jones

Runa is a young Japanese high school teacher leaving the country to avoid the scandal she has created by sleeping with one of her students. She steals her sister’s passport and boards the ferry to Shanghai. Then, careful to impersonate her sister, she is quiet, docile and discreet… Meanwhile, on the last stretch of a fraught and tiring mission to find a wife, an Englishman also boards the ferry. Rebuffed in Tokyo, Ralph hopes that on the Chinese mainland he will meet a gentle, beautiful girl to return home with. When these two meet, suppressing at first their secrets and obsessions on this long and claustrophobic journey, we enter a desolate, emotional landscape as Runa’s journey begins to turn into a surreal and terrifying nightmare...

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Thriller

274 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2003

About the author

"Susanna Jones was born in Hull in 1967 and grew up in Hornsea in East Yorkshire. She studied drama at Royal Holloway, University of London and then spent several years abroad, including two years in Turkey and five years in Japan. She taught English in secondary schools, language schools, a steel corporation and worked as an assistant editor and presenter for NHK Radio.

In 1996 she studied for an MA in Novel Writing at the University of Manchester and now lectures in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. She lives in Brighton where she is a co-creator of The Brighton Moment.

Her work has been translated into over twenty languages and has won the CWA John Creasey Dagger, a Betty Trask Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize." (susanna-jones.com)

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have now read all of Susanna Jones's novels, and this - her second - was typically compelling, readable and haunting. Water Lily is subtitled 'a novel of mystery', which I don't think is quite accurate. A novel of obsession, maybe: a novel of delusion, certainly. There are two main characters - Runa, a young teacher who has to leave the small Japanese town where she lives and works after an affair with a teenage pupil, and Ralph, an unpleasant, lonely British man who has come to Japan to find (ie buy) the perfect wife. They are both fascinating, although Ralph is truly the most horrendous, repulsive, absolutely hateful and disgusting character I have ever come across in fiction. (No, I haven't forgotten that I've read American Psycho - he is that bad.) The plot is gripping and I couldn't stop turning the pages - partly because a little bit of me wanted Runa to have a happy ending/escape, and partly because ALL of me desperately wanted to see Ralph get his comeuppance, preferably a gruesomely painful one. However, the book falls at the final hurdle in the same way as The Missing Person's Guide To Love by the same author: it becomes bogged down in confusion towards the end, and I was left unsure of what had even happened to Ralph. I do like stories to retain some ambiguity, but rather than making me want to read the book again to see what I'd missed or misinterpreted, the ending of Water Lily just left me with a long list of unanswered questions and a feeling of mild annoyance. I did enjoy this more than The Missing Person's Guide To Love, but I didn't think it was up to the standard of the author's other work.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

fine, dark work, certainly no sophomore slump.

two individuals fleeing the past (or the present) fly inexorably at each other.

[Ghada · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that fear, doubt, obsession, jealousy ...etc
could be presented and dealt with in a much better way!
This is NOT a 'mystery novel' - as it was wrongly described!
Shallow characters, purposeless story and kind of disturbing to read!

[Mike C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confusing

What actually happened at the end? Does it depend on the reader's imagination? It's not very clear. Perhaps someone could enlighten me.

[Angelika · Rating 2 out of 5]

My biggest issue with this novel was that it was not believable at all for the most part, especially the plot thread about the young English teacher who has an affair with one of her students, and then decides to flee her country when her secret threatens to be revealed. The other part with the English guy looking for the "perfect" Asian woman was much more plausible. Plus - and that's probably the only redeeming factor about "Water Lily" - the way the book deals with cultural stereotypes is quite convincing - how they are expected, fulfilled and undermined. There is nothing heartwarming, positive or hopeful about it, on the contrary.
The writing is a mixed bag, some of the dialogues felt completely unnatural, while some of Jones's observations were on the point and also conveyed in a poetic manner.
Another problem I had with this book was that I couldn't relate to any of the characters in any way, the two main characters were unlikable, selfish, and not even very interesting. I didn't really want to learn more about them as the story continued.
On the whole, I wouldn't recommend "Water Lily" because it fails on too many important points.

[Skirmantė Rugsėjis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nors knyga išleista Svajonių leidyklos, tai anaiptol nėra meilės romanas. Jame jokių saldybių ar banalybių. Priešingai, labai įdomiai sukonstruota istorija, kuri, jei būtų ilgesnė visai tiktų trileriui. Žinoma, pagrinde sukasi jausmai, tačiau iki romantikos čia niekaip, nes tiek veikėjos Runos įsimylėjusios savo mokinį, tiek senyvo anglo, kurį liguistai traukia jaunos rytietės, jausmai labiau linksta prie išimties iš taisyklės.
Man patiko tai, kad istorija originali, siužetas nėra bandymas įtikti saldaus romano norintiems skaitytojams, veikiau bandymas parodyti kur gali nuvesti tavo paties troškimai.
Labai tinkama pabaiga, o ir knygos ilgis man buvo pats tas, nei per daug, nei per mažai.

[BooksWakeUs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Po "Paukštuko, skelbiančio žemės drebėjimą", iš šios autorės nieko nesitikėjau. Kone du mėnesius buvo sunku motyvuotis skaityti šią knygą, kol ties 70-uoju puslapiu įsibėgėjau ir perskaičiau per kelias dienas.
Kaip pirmoji, taip ir ši - visiškas primityvumas, tekste jokio gylio. Tiesą sakant, labai gaila sugadintos idėjos. Gerai išvysčius tokią įdomią idėją, geras rašytojas parašytų puikią knygą.
Tiesa, labai netikėta pabaiga mano vertinimą kilstelėjo iki 3*. Bendrąja prasme, ši knyga vos vos geresnė už "Paukštuką".

[Lysbeth Van Valkenburg-Lely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je leest het snel uit maar niet erg boeiend

[Koen De Feyter · Rating 1 out of 5]

In dit boek gebeurt er gewoon NIKS !

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not enjoy reading this novel as much as I enjoyed The Earthquake Bird. I found it difficult to get into initially, and the first 30 or so pages were a bit of a slugfest that very nearly put me off completing the book. That being said, once the novel begins to hit its stride, it instantly becomes something you want to devour in one sitting. The novel is incorrectly packaged as a mystery, though it is certainly not a mystery novel.

The two "protagonists" (if you can call them that) are both unlikable sexual predators. Runa is a Japanese teacher in her late 20s with a vocal preference for younger men who has been caught having an illicit affair with a student. Ralph is a 40-something English shop owner who fetishises East Asian women and is travelling across the world to find himself a young mail order bride.

Both meet while on the way to China (Runa is escaping the law and the mob that awaits her, while Ralph, having been unsuccessful in Tokyo, is travelling to try his luck in Shanghai). It's hard to sympathise with either character, but the author still suceeds in making them both compelling. The unreliability of their narration is punctuated by the inclusion of the characters Sam and Shin. Sam, especially, is fantastic at demonstrating just how each characters' world view is spectacularly warped.

The ending feels somewhat sudden and rushed. While I could predict what would happen, the pacing was off and didn't match the rest of the story. It almost felt as though the author had become tired of the story and simply wanted it over and done with.

[Vivienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel completes my reading of Susanna Jones' previous novels. I didn't find this as strong as The Earthquake Bird yet still beautifully written and quite haunting.

Again set in Japan it is as much about the perceptions of 'the Orient' by outsiders as it is about the central mystery.

The ending was described on the cover as 'surreal' though I did not perceive it as such. More lyrical and a touch dream-like but consistent with what had gone before.

Reading these two early novels allowed me to appreciate her progression to The Missing Person's Guide to Love.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jones' first novel, The Earthquake Bird, is one of my favorite books. This is her second novel and while it shares some of the qualities of the first--the spare, haunting writing, the spot-on evocation of Japan and Japanese characters, the subtle sense of mystery--it was clunkier overall. Ralph's character was over-the-top unlikeable and ridiculous and Runa's decision-making didn't feel rooted in who she was, but rather Jones' need for her to do something rash and move the plot along.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read The Earthquake Bird earlier this year, I was really looking forward to reading Water Lily and I was not disappointed. This is a great thriller set on board a claustrofobic ferry journey from Japan to Shanghai where an Englishman and a Japanese girl meet and they both have something to hide. I won't give too much away, but it's a real page-turner from beginning to end! Great book!

[Bernadette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just expected more, the characters are sad and which makes me wonder how many Western/Ralph characters are out there going to Asia to find a much younger wife and a Runa character that is looking for more than what is given to her.

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susanna Jones - Water Lily. My first serious English book, it is interesting the description of the Japanese culture, but I bet I'll get to read better books, it has a little disappointing ending (spoiler, but it's a hard to get hands-on one)

[Meera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started really promisingly, created a really tense atmosphere with intriguing characters who were hiding truths from their past... but unfortunately, the ending tailed out.

[Bria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting and thought provoking. I think novel says a great deal while showing considered restraint. Very skilful writing, this one is really resonating with me.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sparse yet powerful; Jones manages to create and maintain a sense of foreboding throughout this book. Truly creepy.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and intriguing suspense novel with interesting characters, clashing cultures and an unexpected ending.

[Felicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

All I can say is I wish I had not read this book.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story, with an ending i definitely did not expect. A real page turner, emotional, a good plot and believable characters and events.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent novel by Susanna Jones. Very creepy and beautifully written.