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The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters
• One of NPR’s “Nonfiction Books We Love from 2025” • One of Kirkus’s “Best Nonfiction Books of 2025” •
A powerful new voice, telling the American story through three generations of Black mothers.
"This searing, poetic memoir covers generations of powerful Black women who raise their children singly and transmit strength by showing up. . . . Bonét writes her own mothering story with brute honesty." —NPR
"[A] profound story about all Black women, and about the effects of racism in all Black lives. . . . [O]bservant, thoughtful and poetic, in the best sense. [Bonét’s] account of both her family history and the lives of her tributaries show off her gifts to the fullest." —The New York Times
Sasha Bonét grew up in 1990s Houston, worlds removed from the Louisiana cotton plantation that raised her grandmother, Betty Jean, and the Texas bayous that shaped Sasha’s mother, Connie. And though each generation did better, materially, than the last, all of them carried the complex legacy of Black American motherhood with its origins in slavery. All of them knew that the hands used to comb and braid hair, shell pecans, and massage weary muscles were the very hands used to whip children into submission.
When she had her own daughter, Sofia, Bonét was determined to interrupt this tradition. She brought Sofia to New York and set off on a journey—not only up and down the tributaries of her bloodline but also into the lives of Black women in history and literature—Betty Davis, Recy Taylor, and Iberia Hampton among them—to understand both the love and pain they passed on to their children and to create a way of mothering that honors the legacy but abandons the violence that shaped it.
The Waterbearers is a dazzling and transformative work of American storytelling that reimagines not just how we think of Black women, but how we think of ourselves—as individuals, parents, communities, and a country.
A powerful new voice, telling the American story through three generations of Black mothers.
"This searing, poetic memoir covers generations of powerful Black women who raise their children singly and transmit strength by showing up. . . . Bonét writes her own mothering story with brute honesty." —NPR
"[A] profound story about all Black women, and about the effects of racism in all Black lives. . . . [O]bservant, thoughtful and poetic, in the best sense. [Bonét’s] account of both her family history and the lives of her tributaries show off her gifts to the fullest." —The New York Times
Sasha Bonét grew up in 1990s Houston, worlds removed from the Louisiana cotton plantation that raised her grandmother, Betty Jean, and the Texas bayous that shaped Sasha’s mother, Connie. And though each generation did better, materially, than the last, all of them carried the complex legacy of Black American motherhood with its origins in slavery. All of them knew that the hands used to comb and braid hair, shell pecans, and massage weary muscles were the very hands used to whip children into submission.
When she had her own daughter, Sofia, Bonét was determined to interrupt this tradition. She brought Sofia to New York and set off on a journey—not only up and down the tributaries of her bloodline but also into the lives of Black women in history and literature—Betty Davis, Recy Taylor, and Iberia Hampton among them—to understand both the love and pain they passed on to their children and to create a way of mothering that honors the legacy but abandons the violence that shaped it.
The Waterbearers is a dazzling and transformative work of American storytelling that reimagines not just how we think of Black women, but how we think of ourselves—as individuals, parents, communities, and a country.
297 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2025
54 people are currently reading
6112 people want to read
About the author
Sasha Bonét
1 book44 followersSasha Bonét is a writer, critic, and editor living in New York City.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black motherhood in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
Her criticism and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Aperture, Harper's Bazaar, New York Magazine, Vogue, and BOMB among other publications. Sasha is the nonfiction editor at Apogee Journal.
She teaches nonfiction writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts and Barnard College.
Sasha’s debut book The Waterbearers is a sweeping intergenerational memoir and cultural history on Black motherhood in America. Forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf September 16, 2025.
Her criticism and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Aperture, Harper's Bazaar, New York Magazine, Vogue, and BOMB among other publications. Sasha is the nonfiction editor at Apogee Journal.
She teaches nonfiction writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts and Barnard College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
December 29, 2025
my preferred memoir subject.
https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...
i love memoirs, and i love books about complicated family dynamics among women, so it's probably no surprise that this was the second book fitting that description i read in one two-week period. some may call it risky, but for me it's a lifestyle.
this author is brilliant, and we were off to a great start, but around the 65% mark i feel this just…stopped being edited?
it’s an ARC so i’m legally not allowed to get mad about commas, but there are some ideas that don’t come together as well as the early ones.
it still wasn't enough to fully disrupt my enjoyment.
bottom line: i recommend! especially the finished copy.
(thanks to the publisher for the arc)
https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...
i love memoirs, and i love books about complicated family dynamics among women, so it's probably no surprise that this was the second book fitting that description i read in one two-week period. some may call it risky, but for me it's a lifestyle.
this author is brilliant, and we were off to a great start, but around the 65% mark i feel this just…stopped being edited?
it’s an ARC so i’m legally not allowed to get mad about commas, but there are some ideas that don’t come together as well as the early ones.
it still wasn't enough to fully disrupt my enjoyment.
bottom line: i recommend! especially the finished copy.
(thanks to the publisher for the arc)
September 25, 2025
A stunning mashup of memoir, family biography, and academic nonfiction.
Pre-Read Notes:
I was drawn to this book because of the description. I'm always interested in stories that talk about a whole people and where they came from.
"Where I come from, you’re not a woman until you’re a mother." p6 "My country tells me you’re not a mother if you’re not a wife." p8
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I went into this expecting Bonét to write a memoir about how she fits in with the generations of women in her family. This book does this, but it also shows where she and the other women in her family fit into the social fabric of their generations. These were women who changed their worlds and everyone she shared it with, for better or worse. This form made for compelling reading.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ "It is from those closest to us that we learn how to love and how to hate ourselves too." p16 This book is just full of these truths that sort of hold up the narrative, like a scaffolding of wisdom.
✔️ "And a mother doesn’t always give birth, she doesn’t need a uterus, but she delivers us all the same." p49 Yes! Fathers, sisters, friends-- all these can mother.
✔️ "The more she sensed that people wanted to silence her, the louder she became." p74 I relate to this book over and over again. "My relationship with my mother is like my mother’s relationship with water. There is probably nowhere else my mother would rather be than held by the water. But she doesn’t know how to swim. So the very thing that comforts her also terrifies her. It is one of life’s cruelties, to love most what you fear most." p99
✔️ The style is magnetic and kept me reading, but I struggled a bit with the aliases that weren't actual names. This might have been because I listened with a screen reader instead of reading with my eyes.
✔️ This is one heck of a book on mothering. "Mama did the best she could and we always had food on the table and a roof over our heads. Being fed, but not necessarily nourished, was the criterion for care." p89
✔️ I really think the form of a story for every tributary works here. It visualizes the interconnectedness of all the different stories in the memoir. The collage at the end of the book is gorgeous.
Content Notes: racism, racist violence, violence against children and women, abduction, medical experiments (mention), abandonment, SA, child SA
Thank you to Sasha Bonét, Alfred A. Knopf, and NetGalley for a digital copy of THE WATERBEARERS. I found an accessible digital copy on Libby. All views are mine.
Pre-Read Notes:
I was drawn to this book because of the description. I'm always interested in stories that talk about a whole people and where they came from.
"Where I come from, you’re not a woman until you’re a mother." p6 "My country tells me you’re not a mother if you’re not a wife." p8
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I went into this expecting Bonét to write a memoir about how she fits in with the generations of women in her family. This book does this, but it also shows where she and the other women in her family fit into the social fabric of their generations. These were women who changed their worlds and everyone she shared it with, for better or worse. This form made for compelling reading.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ "It is from those closest to us that we learn how to love and how to hate ourselves too." p16 This book is just full of these truths that sort of hold up the narrative, like a scaffolding of wisdom.
✔️ "And a mother doesn’t always give birth, she doesn’t need a uterus, but she delivers us all the same." p49 Yes! Fathers, sisters, friends-- all these can mother.
✔️ "The more she sensed that people wanted to silence her, the louder she became." p74 I relate to this book over and over again. "My relationship with my mother is like my mother’s relationship with water. There is probably nowhere else my mother would rather be than held by the water. But she doesn’t know how to swim. So the very thing that comforts her also terrifies her. It is one of life’s cruelties, to love most what you fear most." p99
✔️ The style is magnetic and kept me reading, but I struggled a bit with the aliases that weren't actual names. This might have been because I listened with a screen reader instead of reading with my eyes.
✔️ This is one heck of a book on mothering. "Mama did the best she could and we always had food on the table and a roof over our heads. Being fed, but not necessarily nourished, was the criterion for care." p89
✔️ I really think the form of a story for every tributary works here. It visualizes the interconnectedness of all the different stories in the memoir. The collage at the end of the book is gorgeous.
Content Notes: racism, racist violence, violence against children and women, abduction, medical experiments (mention), abandonment, SA, child SA
Thank you to Sasha Bonét, Alfred A. Knopf, and NetGalley for a digital copy of THE WATERBEARERS. I found an accessible digital copy on Libby. All views are mine.
October 23, 2025
Sasha Bonét is an American writer. Her 2025 work The Waterbearers is a poignantly-written multigenerational memoir, tracing the lives and common threads that unite Bonét, her mother Connie, and her maternal grandmother Betty Jean, three Black women who grew up along the Gulf Coast (hence the book title). Though it's always tricky in memoirs to write intimately (imperfections and all) about loved ones who aren't writing their own stories, I think Bonét does a very nice job in portraying her grandmother (who has passed on) and her mother as complex, nuanced people in difficult circumstances who coped the best ways they knew how, as well as the effects of their actions on others. Motherhood and dependency are central themes of the story. While Betty Jean had many children with different fathers, she was determined to never rely on any of them or allow any of them to become permanent fixtures in her family's life, leading to her children, including Connie, developing different attitudes and attachment styles to their subsequent adult relationships. Connie had to grow up quickly and was determined to rise up in the world, having her three kids with the same, purposely lighter-skinned husband, and making many sacrifices to succeed at work due to the factors stacked against her (racism, sexism), though these came at the cost of stable, loving relationships with her kids and a series of troubling relationships after splitting from her husband. Bonét became a mother early as well, and spent her 20s and early 30s navigating a difficult dynamic with her daughter's father, and through her own experiences with motherhood, has been able to more fully empathize with her mother and grandmother, as she's forged an independent, creative path for herself away from the Gulf and in New York City. Though Bonét is on the younger side to be writing a memoir (from references in the book, she was likely born in the mid/late '80s, putting her around 40 in 2025), I do think given her approach of using familial stories as the common thread, this memoir is sufficiently well-considered and reflects learned experiences. Bonét also intersperses the book with vignettes about Black womanhood and motherhood from the last century -- these parts were insightful, though I think the memoir would have been sufficiently strong without them.
My statistics:
Book 324 for 2025
Book 2250 cumulatively
My statistics:
Book 324 for 2025
Book 2250 cumulatively
August 17, 2025
I received an advance copy from the publisher for review purposes; this in no way influences my review.
I’ve never been the most read when it comes to nonfiction and memoirs, but I’m glad I’ve been giving more chances to them. _The Waterbearers_ is a really beautiful collection of recollections and experiences across three generations. I love how the theme of water and proximity to bodies of water comes up throughout and how Sasha Bonét talks about it shaping her and the women in her family. There is a lot of obvious love and obvious pain throughout the stories shared, and the ways generational trauma plays out for them. I think I especially loved how Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha all have different ideas of how to be a good mother and present different iterations of strength, and how those ideas have shaped each other. This was really beautiful and engaging, and I liked how it was telling the stories but also examining them from knowledge gained from own experiences and therapy.
I’ve never been the most read when it comes to nonfiction and memoirs, but I’m glad I’ve been giving more chances to them. _The Waterbearers_ is a really beautiful collection of recollections and experiences across three generations. I love how the theme of water and proximity to bodies of water comes up throughout and how Sasha Bonét talks about it shaping her and the women in her family. There is a lot of obvious love and obvious pain throughout the stories shared, and the ways generational trauma plays out for them. I think I especially loved how Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha all have different ideas of how to be a good mother and present different iterations of strength, and how those ideas have shaped each other. This was really beautiful and engaging, and I liked how it was telling the stories but also examining them from knowledge gained from own experiences and therapy.
September 16, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5. Thank you to @aaknopf for the gifted advance review copy!
Ms. Bonét, ma’am, you can write!
What a stunning memoir. Earlier this month, I had decided I didn’t have time to read this right now. It was in my hands, on its way to my shelves, when I spontaneously took a quick peek at the first page. Wow! I shifted my plans and here we are.
This multi-generational, female-centric story lives in the same family as SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER by Ashley C. Ford, MEN WE REAPED by Jesmyn Ward, FINDING ME by Viola Davis, and the novel MEMPHIS by Tara M. Stringfellow. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one.
Bonét writes about difficult subjects such as childhood trauma and intergenerational abuse with great care and grace, always considering the underlying history and unique circumstances that lead people to sometimes inflict harm on those they love. Where appropriate, she weaves in the surrounding historical context, providing additional insight into what life was like for Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha.
I loved the metaphor of these women being like tributaries of a river, and of them being the water bearers for their family.
This is out today, and I hope you consider picking it up!
Ms. Bonét, ma’am, you can write!
What a stunning memoir. Earlier this month, I had decided I didn’t have time to read this right now. It was in my hands, on its way to my shelves, when I spontaneously took a quick peek at the first page. Wow! I shifted my plans and here we are.
This multi-generational, female-centric story lives in the same family as SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER by Ashley C. Ford, MEN WE REAPED by Jesmyn Ward, FINDING ME by Viola Davis, and the novel MEMPHIS by Tara M. Stringfellow. It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one.
Bonét writes about difficult subjects such as childhood trauma and intergenerational abuse with great care and grace, always considering the underlying history and unique circumstances that lead people to sometimes inflict harm on those they love. Where appropriate, she weaves in the surrounding historical context, providing additional insight into what life was like for Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha.
I loved the metaphor of these women being like tributaries of a river, and of them being the water bearers for their family.
This is out today, and I hope you consider picking it up!
September 12, 2025
This book is an amazing look at strong black women. Betty Jean - wow! She sure did shape Sasha’s mother who shaped her. And like I always say each generation should be better than the last. That is an underlying theme in this book. I really love how Sasha wants to do much better than the women before her. That’s so relatable for me and a lot of women I know. This book is so beautifully written. Bravo! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 26, 2025
"Perhaps the greatest grief of the Black people of America is not knowing where we come from while living in nations that don't claim us as their own."
"The Waterbearers" by Sasha Bonet is a difficult book for me to review. For starters, I received what must be a very rough ARC of this book. It was filled with spelling and grammatical errors, as well as missing dates and locations. I am assuming the missing information will be added and the errors corrected prior to publication, but it was very distracting and took some critical thinking on more than one occasion to decipher exactly what was being said. Additionally, this book is written more as a stream-of conscious-relating events-as they-are thought-of instead of chronologically. This made the book difficult to follow at times, especially with so many important people involved in the author's life story, and repetitive. It is a very important story to tell and the language really is beautiful at points, but I couldn't fully appreciate the quality of the writing due to the editing that seems to still need to be done.
That said, I loved how the author used water to tie together the stories of motherhood and womanhood. The deep dive inter generational trauma was insightful and it was inspirational to read about how these woman used their inner strengths and talents to succeed in a world that only wanted to keep them down.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
"The Waterbearers" by Sasha Bonet is a difficult book for me to review. For starters, I received what must be a very rough ARC of this book. It was filled with spelling and grammatical errors, as well as missing dates and locations. I am assuming the missing information will be added and the errors corrected prior to publication, but it was very distracting and took some critical thinking on more than one occasion to decipher exactly what was being said. Additionally, this book is written more as a stream-of conscious-relating events-as they-are thought-of instead of chronologically. This made the book difficult to follow at times, especially with so many important people involved in the author's life story, and repetitive. It is a very important story to tell and the language really is beautiful at points, but I couldn't fully appreciate the quality of the writing due to the editing that seems to still need to be done.
That said, I loved how the author used water to tie together the stories of motherhood and womanhood. The deep dive inter generational trauma was insightful and it was inspirational to read about how these woman used their inner strengths and talents to succeed in a world that only wanted to keep them down.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
October 12, 2025
I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. It’s part family memoir and part commentary about America’s past and current inequalities. The book traces generations of women in her family, untangling decades of intergenerational trauma. It’s heartbreaking and intense and very powerful. She deftly examines how race, poverty, gender, abuse, and power have and in continue to shape Black Womens experiences. It did take me a while to get hooked and it drag at times but overall, an excellent book.
October 1, 2025
I've been lax in my posting, but I was in the middle of finishing a few absolutely fantastic books. The Water Bearers by Sasha Bonét being one of them.
Such a fortunate year for excellent reads for me. I feel like my reviews will not do them justice.
This is a story of Bonéts family. A family tree told through the lives of women. Growing up in a bayou in Texas. We start with her grandmother, Betty Jean, and Mama Connie, one of Betty's eleven children. Bonét navigates the story of these eleven children beautifully. This is a story of generational trauma and survival. How her mother tried so hard to NOT be like what she percieved her family to be. Not seeing that the similarities are greater than you think. How she survived and thrived in the best way that she could.
Not only are we given this rich story about her family, but there are also interludes (tributaries Bonét phrases it) that give us the story of various black women that most of us are familiar with and that came before her.
It is a history, it is a memoir, it is a biography, it is academic nonfiction, it is the story of women and mothers and the power they hold and all of the multitudes that women and mothers are. It is simply wonderful, ranking up there with the best of the year for me. I want everyone to read it. Honestly, especially men.
Such a fortunate year for excellent reads for me. I feel like my reviews will not do them justice.
This is a story of Bonéts family. A family tree told through the lives of women. Growing up in a bayou in Texas. We start with her grandmother, Betty Jean, and Mama Connie, one of Betty's eleven children. Bonét navigates the story of these eleven children beautifully. This is a story of generational trauma and survival. How her mother tried so hard to NOT be like what she percieved her family to be. Not seeing that the similarities are greater than you think. How she survived and thrived in the best way that she could.
Not only are we given this rich story about her family, but there are also interludes (tributaries Bonét phrases it) that give us the story of various black women that most of us are familiar with and that came before her.
It is a history, it is a memoir, it is a biography, it is academic nonfiction, it is the story of women and mothers and the power they hold and all of the multitudes that women and mothers are. It is simply wonderful, ranking up there with the best of the year for me. I want everyone to read it. Honestly, especially men.
May 28, 2025
This is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. A story about the lineage of 3 generations of Black women set in the south yet connects to so many Black women everywhere. The weaving of history and experience of Black women in America is masterful. When you’re reading this book you feel as though you’re watching a film come to life off the pages. You laugh, you cry, I can see so much of my own life as she writes this beautiful memoir. When I finished the book I felt cleansed and inspired to keep the hard conversations going. It is the only way for any of to really find healing to break these generational curses. I’ve already preorder the book for my mom and her sisters! I saw God in these pages, something spiritual definitely used Sasha Bonét as a vessel and I’m truly grateful.
Read
January 5, 2026The Water Bearers is a beautiful tribute to the village of Black women who shaped Sasha Bonét—her mother, grandmother, and aunts. Their wisdom, love, and influence resonated deeply with me and warmed my heart.
Through raw introspection Bonét explores how love and trauma flows through generations. Although her memories hold the pain of absent fathers, cycles of violence and abuse, her journey is one of healing. She’s working to carry the love forward and leave the hurt behind. I was happy to have the Matriarchal Tree to understand the connections throughout the generations . 4.5
Through raw introspection Bonét explores how love and trauma flows through generations. Although her memories hold the pain of absent fathers, cycles of violence and abuse, her journey is one of healing. She’s working to carry the love forward and leave the hurt behind. I was happy to have the Matriarchal Tree to understand the connections throughout the generations . 4.5
November 14, 2025
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself, and her words were like poetry - lyrical, purposeful, and full of thought. I loved the way she wove her personal narrative with historical accounts, giving such rich background and context to every chapter. Bonet is deeply insightful, not only into her own life, but into the lives of her mother and grandmother, creating a multigenerational story that feels intimate, powerful, and unforgettable. One of the most interesting memoirs that I’ve read!
July 24, 2025
Waterbearers is an exceptional book. Elegant, meticulously built, generous, moving, with the kind of prose that is so good it makes you stop reading just to jump up and down. It holds ancient, seismic wisdom. From the very first page, it sets your sights high and somehow still manages to exceed them.
There is no timidity here. No shyness about picking up the biggest, hardest things. It’s an Evel Knievel kind of book; you read mesmerized, watching the rider suspended midair, clearing one impossible car after another, defying any possible logic of gravity. Or maybe it’s more like being on a boat moving through bayou fog, with a near-blind woman at the rudder, guiding you into new terrain. Not just across the visible surface of your mind but deep into the milky, liquid parts.
This is biography shaped like a river, with tributaries flowing from one life into the next. A personal story, a family story, a Black story, an American story, and a universal one. A story of mothers and daughters. Of harm and repair. Of the long, nonlinear work of transmuting generational trauma. In a time when we’re inundated with essays tracing the tiniest folds of internal life, Bonét offers a different cartography. One that maps not just the self, but the grandmothers and mothers and all the women who carried her. Not with blame. Not with accounting. With eyes wide open. Eyes of love.
This book moves with immense courage and grace. It holds a scalpel-sharp eye and equally a prayer-soft one. It offers something important, a message that needs to be understood both with the clarity of the mind and the fingertips of the heart. As you read, you can feel Toni Morrison and James Baldwin beside you. Not hovering like ghosts, but sitting on the porch at day’s end, when the Houston heat has finally broken, smiling in rocking chairs.
This story will stay with you. It'll mark you and change you. It’s a common story told by a rare storyteller. Of wounds, and the ever-present potential, to transfigure them through courage, pain, shattering and compassion. Compassion not of the performative kind. Nor the clean band-aid version. But the kind that a mother offers when she embraces a bloodied, sobbing child, straightens her dress, kisses her forehead, and says, "I know, baby, I know".
There is no timidity here. No shyness about picking up the biggest, hardest things. It’s an Evel Knievel kind of book; you read mesmerized, watching the rider suspended midair, clearing one impossible car after another, defying any possible logic of gravity. Or maybe it’s more like being on a boat moving through bayou fog, with a near-blind woman at the rudder, guiding you into new terrain. Not just across the visible surface of your mind but deep into the milky, liquid parts.
This is biography shaped like a river, with tributaries flowing from one life into the next. A personal story, a family story, a Black story, an American story, and a universal one. A story of mothers and daughters. Of harm and repair. Of the long, nonlinear work of transmuting generational trauma. In a time when we’re inundated with essays tracing the tiniest folds of internal life, Bonét offers a different cartography. One that maps not just the self, but the grandmothers and mothers and all the women who carried her. Not with blame. Not with accounting. With eyes wide open. Eyes of love.
This book moves with immense courage and grace. It holds a scalpel-sharp eye and equally a prayer-soft one. It offers something important, a message that needs to be understood both with the clarity of the mind and the fingertips of the heart. As you read, you can feel Toni Morrison and James Baldwin beside you. Not hovering like ghosts, but sitting on the porch at day’s end, when the Houston heat has finally broken, smiling in rocking chairs.
This story will stay with you. It'll mark you and change you. It’s a common story told by a rare storyteller. Of wounds, and the ever-present potential, to transfigure them through courage, pain, shattering and compassion. Compassion not of the performative kind. Nor the clean band-aid version. But the kind that a mother offers when she embraces a bloodied, sobbing child, straightens her dress, kisses her forehead, and says, "I know, baby, I know".
October 6, 2025
Thank you again, Knopf, for this ARC. This is exactly why I love joining programs like Penguin Random House’s Influencer Program, to discover powerful voices like Sasha Bonét. The Water Bearers was truly inspiring and taught me more than anyone in my life ever has about Black history, what it means to be a woman, and the profound strength of motherhood. Bonét’s storytelling is both poetic and unflinching, weaving together pain, resilience, and love across generations. This book is what storytelling is.
September 16, 2025
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Water Bearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters by Sasha Bonet is an exquisite masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of a traditional memoir. Bonet masterfully weaves the intricate threads of her family’s history, crafting a narrative that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. Her storytelling is so immersive that it draws readers in, making them feel as though they are a part of her family's journey.
The prose is both lyrical and accessible, making it a joy to read from start to finish. The clarity and flow of the narrative ensure that it’s easy to follow, yet rich with emotion and depth. What makes this memoir truly spectacular is Bonet’s ability to evoke a sense of shared experience; her story feels like it belongs to all of us, resonating with themes of love, resilience, and the enduring bonds between mothers and daughters.
A heartfelt, beautifully written work that lingers in your thoughts long after the final page. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling and profound family histories.
The Water Bearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters by Sasha Bonet is an exquisite masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of a traditional memoir. Bonet masterfully weaves the intricate threads of her family’s history, crafting a narrative that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. Her storytelling is so immersive that it draws readers in, making them feel as though they are a part of her family's journey.
The prose is both lyrical and accessible, making it a joy to read from start to finish. The clarity and flow of the narrative ensure that it’s easy to follow, yet rich with emotion and depth. What makes this memoir truly spectacular is Bonet’s ability to evoke a sense of shared experience; her story feels like it belongs to all of us, resonating with themes of love, resilience, and the enduring bonds between mothers and daughters.
A heartfelt, beautifully written work that lingers in your thoughts long after the final page. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling and profound family histories.
November 8, 2025
A powerful exploration of a matriarchal family and powerful matriarchal figures in Black history, American history. Sasha Bonet wove a beautiful memoir that is also part history lesson. Her examination of her lineage was inspiring and brought tears to my eyes. The additional tie ins of tributes to the Black woman were perfect.
October 13, 2025
One of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve ever read. Review to come!
July 15, 2025
Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing an ARC of this title.
This is a personal memoir exploring the author's lineage in relation to the women in her family. The author includes her own thoughts, some history and considers present day events. Though not told in chronological order, the author does explore her childhood and her grandmother. She pulls on strong black female figures of the present day.
While I enjoyed the author's writing, the organization was a bit confusing to follow. But I was reading an early, advanced copy, so hopefully issues will be found and fixed before publication.
I just happened to have been reading several truly amazing banned books dealing with racism, history and support needed (and deserved) by groups of people, and this book fit in beautifully with those.
4 stars (really hope those issues are fixed!)
This is a personal memoir exploring the author's lineage in relation to the women in her family. The author includes her own thoughts, some history and considers present day events. Though not told in chronological order, the author does explore her childhood and her grandmother. She pulls on strong black female figures of the present day.
While I enjoyed the author's writing, the organization was a bit confusing to follow. But I was reading an early, advanced copy, so hopefully issues will be found and fixed before publication.
I just happened to have been reading several truly amazing banned books dealing with racism, history and support needed (and deserved) by groups of people, and this book fit in beautifully with those.
4 stars (really hope those issues are fixed!)
December 30, 2025
What a way to finish a year of reads. I will never be the person I was before reading this book and I truly mean that. Part family memoir, part social commentary, part poetry, all masterpiece. Some parts are hard to read but it is important that you do it anyway. So grateful to have come across this in my own first year of motherhood, because it hit that much deeper. Five stars, Ms. Sasha Bonét!
January 9, 2026
Heartbreaking, lyrical, beautiful, powerful. Cannot recommend this book highly enough.
November 9, 2025
4.5/5 wow wow wow
January 16, 2026
I really wanted to love this book but as an audio listener I found the switching back and forth from a scholarly work to the memoir of a family disconcerting. This may be easier to follow in written form.
I was not able to finish it in the time allocated from the library.
I was not able to finish it in the time allocated from the library.
November 6, 2025
This is a raw, beautifully written book, but difficult to absorb. The pain and tragedy that three generations of women faced, including the author’s grandmother, mother, and herself, is agonizing. This is an important read for all Americans.
May 11, 2025
"The Waterbearers" is author Sasha Bonét's personal exploration of her lineage and upbringing, borne on the shoulders of the women in her family. It's part memoir, part history, and includes Bonét's own musings and thoughts on present day events and phenomenon.
While the writing isn't chronological, Bonét shares details of her childhood, and the lack of presence of any male figure - for her, her mother Connie was her sole guardian and parent. She also goes into detail about her grandmother Betty Jean, a fiercely strong woman who spent most of her years in Louisiana picking cotton before moving to Texas to raise her family, almost single-handedly. And for her daughter Connie, despite her best attempts to separate herself from her mother's shadow, she too became a single mother, but raised her daughter with as much love and direction that she could. She pulls as well from strong black female figures in the present, highlighting the many ways these women continue to push forward for all black women, and the extent of weight they bear on their shoulders.
While I found Bonét's writing complex and captivating, I struggled with this novel as a whole. The chapters weren't organized in a way that I could easily follow, and the skips in time periods as well as certain repeated events or themes were hard to follow. I was given what I imagine was a very early ARC of this book as well, so there's a number of issues with the spelling and grammar ("ff" appears to be removed from any and all words, line breaks that occur in the middle of words, sentences missing key words and years (possibly to be filled later with more research), etc. that detracted from the reading experience as a whole.
While the writing isn't chronological, Bonét shares details of her childhood, and the lack of presence of any male figure - for her, her mother Connie was her sole guardian and parent. She also goes into detail about her grandmother Betty Jean, a fiercely strong woman who spent most of her years in Louisiana picking cotton before moving to Texas to raise her family, almost single-handedly. And for her daughter Connie, despite her best attempts to separate herself from her mother's shadow, she too became a single mother, but raised her daughter with as much love and direction that she could. She pulls as well from strong black female figures in the present, highlighting the many ways these women continue to push forward for all black women, and the extent of weight they bear on their shoulders.
While I found Bonét's writing complex and captivating, I struggled with this novel as a whole. The chapters weren't organized in a way that I could easily follow, and the skips in time periods as well as certain repeated events or themes were hard to follow. I was given what I imagine was a very early ARC of this book as well, so there's a number of issues with the spelling and grammar ("ff" appears to be removed from any and all words, line breaks that occur in the middle of words, sentences missing key words and years (possibly to be filled later with more research), etc. that detracted from the reading experience as a whole.
September 16, 2025
At the beginning her book, Sasha Bonet included a matriarchal family line, beginning with her great great grandmother, Rose, born a free woman in 1875 on a plantation in Louisiana. Bonet’s memories begin with her grandmother, Betty Jean, who birthed eleven children by nine men, the names of her four sons as well as the names of the fathers of the children omitted from the line. Curiously, Bonet chose to include the names of her two brothers, the only men, in the matriarchal line. One of her brothers is listed by relation, Junior, a designating that the value of a name is given to the father not the son, a transmission given through the name of the father. The other brother bears the traditionally female name, Shannon, which mimics the subterfuge by Thetis to dress her son, Achilles, as a woman to keep him away from the war. Shannon, born during a time when the phrase ‘getting in touch with ones feminine side’ was in vogue, suggests a mother aware of the cultural changings of her time, of the rise of a less toxic man, in preparation of the transmission of genetic information to, however miniscule, include the men in the lives of the women in her family history. Of her brother Shannon, Bonet wrote that they shared an identical balance of the masculine and the feminine.
Make no mistake, the passing on, the bearing of water, individually, historically, and communally, Bonet makes clear has always been the burden of Black women, upon whom the country was built. Betty Jean migrated to Houston, Bayou City, and within Houston migrated to several addresses, the final one known as 50 10, a house to be filled generations of women, the home base for any of them, and the men, in their lives whenever they were in trouble, a place of refuge and healing, the well, to return to however far they traveled from 50 10. When Bonet’s grandmother was pregnant with her mother, she dreamed of water, and when Bonet was pregnant with her daughter she dreamed of water.
The genealogical search of Betty Jean branches off into historical sketches of other women, biographical sketches Bonet titles and numbers Tributaries. The numbers are random as a lottery drawing, suggesting Bonet will share more sketches of women in the future. Two familiar tributaries. Betty Mabry Davis, one of the wives of Miles Davis, a fiercely independent artist, entertainer, and creative force of nature in Manhattan until her disappearance. The other woman, Iberia Hampton, mother of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther, murdered by an orchestrated act led by the FBI. The Hamptons were next door Chicago neighbors to Mamie Till and her son Emmett. Earlier, events leading up to the death of Louis Till, Emmett Till’s father, charged and executed in Italy for rape and murder, mentioned by the poet, Ezra Pound in his Cantos, would be written in Writing to Save a Life by John Edgar Wideman to form a bloody triad of the Till family. The sons of Black women slaughtered by police join the Black women, mothers and daughters who also met violent deaths by police, in a later chapter of Bonet’s memoir.
And the psychological damage of swallowed micro-aggressions held over generations as trauma genetically passed from mother to daughter to someday in some later generation break through the levee holding back anger and rage to gush forth as mental illness is described. Bonet’s chapter on her mother’s career in outdoor managerial positions, working for the railroad in Houston, reads like a branch to Isabel Wilkerson’s description of train routes from the South in The Warmth of other Suns.
Sasha Bonet’s memoir is compelling reading, written with deep knowledge and a poetic flair, making it a must read.
Thank you to the publisher, Alfred A Knopf, and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy.
Make no mistake, the passing on, the bearing of water, individually, historically, and communally, Bonet makes clear has always been the burden of Black women, upon whom the country was built. Betty Jean migrated to Houston, Bayou City, and within Houston migrated to several addresses, the final one known as 50 10, a house to be filled generations of women, the home base for any of them, and the men, in their lives whenever they were in trouble, a place of refuge and healing, the well, to return to however far they traveled from 50 10. When Bonet’s grandmother was pregnant with her mother, she dreamed of water, and when Bonet was pregnant with her daughter she dreamed of water.
The genealogical search of Betty Jean branches off into historical sketches of other women, biographical sketches Bonet titles and numbers Tributaries. The numbers are random as a lottery drawing, suggesting Bonet will share more sketches of women in the future. Two familiar tributaries. Betty Mabry Davis, one of the wives of Miles Davis, a fiercely independent artist, entertainer, and creative force of nature in Manhattan until her disappearance. The other woman, Iberia Hampton, mother of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther, murdered by an orchestrated act led by the FBI. The Hamptons were next door Chicago neighbors to Mamie Till and her son Emmett. Earlier, events leading up to the death of Louis Till, Emmett Till’s father, charged and executed in Italy for rape and murder, mentioned by the poet, Ezra Pound in his Cantos, would be written in Writing to Save a Life by John Edgar Wideman to form a bloody triad of the Till family. The sons of Black women slaughtered by police join the Black women, mothers and daughters who also met violent deaths by police, in a later chapter of Bonet’s memoir.
And the psychological damage of swallowed micro-aggressions held over generations as trauma genetically passed from mother to daughter to someday in some later generation break through the levee holding back anger and rage to gush forth as mental illness is described. Bonet’s chapter on her mother’s career in outdoor managerial positions, working for the railroad in Houston, reads like a branch to Isabel Wilkerson’s description of train routes from the South in The Warmth of other Suns.
Sasha Bonet’s memoir is compelling reading, written with deep knowledge and a poetic flair, making it a must read.
Thank you to the publisher, Alfred A Knopf, and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy.
September 24, 2025
The Waterbearers by Sasha Bonét is one of those memoirs that lingers with you long after you’ve finished. It’s raw, lyrical, and deeply tied to both the beauty and the heaviness of inheritance—what’s passed down through generations of women, mothers, and daughters.
Bonét weaves together her family’s story with the recurring metaphor of water, which becomes a way of understanding strength, survival, and womanhood. I especially loved how she highlights the different ways Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha herself embodied resilience—each with their own idea of what it means to be a good mother, and how those choices ripple through generations.
That said, the book isn’t always an easy read. The writing often feels more like a stream of consciousness than a traditional narrative, and at times it can be a little hard to follow, especially with so many people and timelines moving in and out of the story. The edition I had was an advance copy, and there were definitely editing issues (typos, missing details) that pulled me out of the experience a bit. I’m hopeful those will be polished in the final version, because the writing itself is stunning in places.
What really shines is Bonét’s ability to write about intergenerational trauma with such care. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths, but she always grounds them in empathy and historical context. It’s painful, but it’s also a celebration—of survival, of strength, and of the women who carried and poured into her.
If you’re drawn to memoirs like Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford or Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward, this is one to add to your list. It’s not perfect, but it’s powerful, and I’m glad I read it.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Bonét weaves together her family’s story with the recurring metaphor of water, which becomes a way of understanding strength, survival, and womanhood. I especially loved how she highlights the different ways Betty Jean, Connie, and Sasha herself embodied resilience—each with their own idea of what it means to be a good mother, and how those choices ripple through generations.
That said, the book isn’t always an easy read. The writing often feels more like a stream of consciousness than a traditional narrative, and at times it can be a little hard to follow, especially with so many people and timelines moving in and out of the story. The edition I had was an advance copy, and there were definitely editing issues (typos, missing details) that pulled me out of the experience a bit. I’m hopeful those will be polished in the final version, because the writing itself is stunning in places.
What really shines is Bonét’s ability to write about intergenerational trauma with such care. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths, but she always grounds them in empathy and historical context. It’s painful, but it’s also a celebration—of survival, of strength, and of the women who carried and poured into her.
If you’re drawn to memoirs like Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford or Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward, this is one to add to your list. It’s not perfect, but it’s powerful, and I’m glad I read it.
A big thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 25, 2026
The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters by Sasha Bonét is a sweeping, lyrical memoir that honors the power, resilience, and complexity of Black womanhood across generations. Bonét intertwines her own family history with broader cultural narratives, focusing on her grandmother, her mother, and herself — three women shaped by migration, sacrifice, love, and enduring strength. The book explores not just personal memory but how heritage, race, and gender have influenced the lives and choices of the women who came before her.
Bonét’s prose is evocative and deeply reflective, moving between intimate recollections and broader historical contexts. The narrative brings to life her grandmother’s upbringing in the Louisiana bayous and Texas, her mother’s struggles and aspirations, and her own journey of identity and motherhood. Within these stories, the memoir also highlights influential Black women from history, giving the work both personal and cultural richness. Themes of love, trauma, care, and resilience flow through every page, making the memoir feel like both a celebration and a reckoning.
The Waterbearers stands out for its emotional honesty and literary grace. It is a story about roots and legacy — about how the past lives in us, shapes us, and can inspire us to forge new paths. A rich and unforgettable read, this book resonates with anyone interested in family, history, and the intricate ties that bind us.
Bonét’s prose is evocative and deeply reflective, moving between intimate recollections and broader historical contexts. The narrative brings to life her grandmother’s upbringing in the Louisiana bayous and Texas, her mother’s struggles and aspirations, and her own journey of identity and motherhood. Within these stories, the memoir also highlights influential Black women from history, giving the work both personal and cultural richness. Themes of love, trauma, care, and resilience flow through every page, making the memoir feel like both a celebration and a reckoning.
The Waterbearers stands out for its emotional honesty and literary grace. It is a story about roots and legacy — about how the past lives in us, shapes us, and can inspire us to forge new paths. A rich and unforgettable read, this book resonates with anyone interested in family, history, and the intricate ties that bind us.
November 3, 2025
I don't know what it is about memoirs, but I've pretty much loved every one that I've ever read. I enjoy hearing about other's lives--the joy and hardships, all of it. First, I need to say that I listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author. It was a quick read and I found a parallel with Bonet's life in the fact that my paternal grandparent's house was the one that everyone in my family returned to--it was the house that my cousins and I "landed" at when we had no where else to go. That may be where the similarities stopped, though. The Waterbearers is a poignant story about family and, in particular, the way that women have been kept down but have also risen. Bonet writes about her great-grandmother, her grandmother, her mom and her mom's siblings in a way that shows the complexity of being family and the perpetual grasp for power that the women of her family experienced (by having children/withholding those children from the men that fathered them/having a home of one's own/etc.).
September 20, 2025
This book was really lyrically written. It was pleasant to read*, and I enjoyed how the author weaved in the stories of her family members while also interspersing well known stories of different time periods and relating what was happening on the larger societal scale with what happened with her family members lives.
*It was rather frustrating to read this ebook thought due to how the publisher shared the advanced copy. ALL of the numbers were removed from the book, as were many of the proper nouns, and most infuriatingly double ff's through the entire book were removed. It made the reading experience almost so painful that many times I almost put the book down and abandoned it; the fact that I didn't is a testament to the authors ability to tell a compelling story. But I'd recommend a publisher not do that in the future if you want people to give the book the attention it deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy!
*It was rather frustrating to read this ebook thought due to how the publisher shared the advanced copy. ALL of the numbers were removed from the book, as were many of the proper nouns, and most infuriatingly double ff's through the entire book were removed. It made the reading experience almost so painful that many times I almost put the book down and abandoned it; the fact that I didn't is a testament to the authors ability to tell a compelling story. But I'd recommend a publisher not do that in the future if you want people to give the book the attention it deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy!
December 23, 2025
A beautiful and necessary multigenerational memoir. I was immersed in this novel! It feels so raw, real and intentional. Sasha Bonet’s ability to dissect and articulate the events of women in her life in relation to herself and America history is mind-blowing: “That’s what America did, used the wombs of Black women to build a new world”.
This is not just her memoir, it’s a piece of America’s memoir. I loved how she incorporated the stories of mothers from great historical figures: Fredrick Douglas, Malcolm X, Emmet Till and Fred Hampton. The Waterbearers is a beautifully written, raw introspective journey of trauma, motherhood, survival, sacrifice, and reckoning. Must Read! Thank you to Sasha Bonét, Alfred A. Knopf, and NetGalley for sending this book (eARC) of THE WATERBEARERS. All opinions are my own.
This is not just her memoir, it’s a piece of America’s memoir. I loved how she incorporated the stories of mothers from great historical figures: Fredrick Douglas, Malcolm X, Emmet Till and Fred Hampton. The Waterbearers is a beautifully written, raw introspective journey of trauma, motherhood, survival, sacrifice, and reckoning. Must Read! Thank you to Sasha Bonét, Alfred A. Knopf, and NetGalley for sending this book (eARC) of THE WATERBEARERS. All opinions are my own.
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