Water

by Sue Thomas

With a sensibility and style reminiscent of Alice Hoffman - an exquisite mix of women's righteous anger and edgy humor - Sue Thomas has written a remarkable second novel that is as irresistible and satisfying as a shimmering blast of surf on a hot day. Under the quiet surface of their life together, Ruth and her teen-age daughter Julie struggle with the emotional residue of Ruth's divorce from Julie's father, Simon. Lovers - the proverbial "other fish in the sea" - come and go for both, but Simon's memory survives all comers. Myths of mermaids and mermen and other real and imagined creatures of the water surface and then recede, leaving behind their stories of the seductiveness of the sea. Water flows around and through this novel, spawning both a dream lover for Ruth to eat at her table and sleep in her bed and a dream of revenge for Julie, who cannot forgive her father for leaving. Even as she is distracted by the discovery of her sexuality, Julie is determined to find her father and confront him, and when she does, the resolution is both liberating and devastating. Affecting and enthralling, Water explores unforgettably the territory that lies between betrayal and healing.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

I'm currently pitching my 3rd novel. It's about what happens when the mysteries of technology and nature intersect. 'The Fault in Reality' is set in 2016, the year everything started to go horribly wrong for the UK and the US. Restarting in fiction when you haven't had an agent for 20 years is hard to do but I hope to find a friendly publisher.

My first novel was 'Correspondence' (short-listed for the Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 1992, The James Tiptree Award, and the European Science Fiction Award). In 1994 I published my second novel, 'Water', and edited the anthology 'Wild Women: Contemporary Short Stories By Women Celebrating Women' (1994).

After that I turned to nonfiction: 'Creative Writing: A Handbook For Workshop Leaders' (1995); the cyberspace memoir/travelogue 'Hello World: travels in virtuality' (2004), and 'Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace' (2013), a study of nature metaphors in internet culture and language.

My most recent book is 'Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age' (2017), which explains the psychology behind our love for nature and offers practical advice on how to feel better without logging off.

I've contributed to a wide range of anthologies and journals and written for The Guardian, Orion Magazine, Slate, and many others.

I was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1951. My parents were both Dutch but had settled in England. I founded the trAce Online Writing Centre at Nottingham Trent University in 1995, and became Professor of New Media at De Montfort University in 2005. Since 2013 I've been a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University.