What do you think?
Rate this book
The Hundred Waters
Formerly a model and photographer trying to make it in New York, Louisa Rader is back in her affluent hometown of Nearwater, Connecticut, where she's married to a successful older architect, raising a preteen daughter, and trying to vitalize the provincial local art center. As the years pass, she's grown restless in her safe and comfortable routine, haunted by the flash of the life she used to live. When intense and intriguing young artist-environmentalist Gabriel arrives in town with his aristo-cratic family, his impact on the Raders has hothouse effects. As Gabriel pushes to realize his artistic vision for the world, he pulls both Louisa and her daughter Sylvie under his spell, with consequences that disrupt the Raders' world forever.
A strange, sexy, and sinister novel of art and attraction, in The Hundred Waters Acampora gives us an incisive, page-turning story of ambition, despair, desire, and the price of fulfillment and freedom at all costs.
A strange, sexy, and sinister novel of art and attraction, in The Hundred Waters Acampora gives us an incisive, page-turning story of ambition, despair, desire, and the price of fulfillment and freedom at all costs.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 23, 2022
35 people are currently reading
4200 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Acampora
7 books219 followersLauren Acampora is the author of two novels, The Paper Wasp and The Hundred Waters, and two collections of linked stories, The Wonder Garden and The Animal Room (June 2026), all published by Grove Atlantic. The Animal Room features the story “Dominion,” which was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2025.
The Hundred Waters was named one of Vogue’s best books of the year, a LitHub best book of the summer, and one of The Millions’ most-anticipated books of 2022.
Lauren’s first novel, The Paper Wasp was named a Best Summer Read by The New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Oprah Magazine, ELLE, Town & Country, BBC.com, Daily Mail (UK), Tatler, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, as well as a Best Indie Novel of 2019 by Chicago Review of Books. It was also longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize.
The Wonder Garden, a debut collection of linked stories, was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and an Indie Next selection, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2015 by Amazon and NPR. It won the GLCA New Writers Award and was a finalist for the New England Book Award. It was on the longlist for The Story Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize.
Lauren’s short fiction and other writing has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as The Paris Review, One Story, New England Review, Story Magazine, Guernica, Missouri Review, The Common, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, The New York Times, LitHub, and The Best American Short Stories 2025.
She graduated from Brown University, earned an MFA at Brooklyn College, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Ucross, Ragdale Foundation, Art OMI, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lauren lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog.
The Hundred Waters was named one of Vogue’s best books of the year, a LitHub best book of the summer, and one of The Millions’ most-anticipated books of 2022.
Lauren’s first novel, The Paper Wasp was named a Best Summer Read by The New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Oprah Magazine, ELLE, Town & Country, BBC.com, Daily Mail (UK), Tatler, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, as well as a Best Indie Novel of 2019 by Chicago Review of Books. It was also longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize.
The Wonder Garden, a debut collection of linked stories, was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and an Indie Next selection, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2015 by Amazon and NPR. It won the GLCA New Writers Award and was a finalist for the New England Book Award. It was on the longlist for The Story Prize and nominated for the Kirkus Prize.
Lauren’s short fiction and other writing has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as The Paris Review, One Story, New England Review, Story Magazine, Guernica, Missouri Review, The Common, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, The New York Times, LitHub, and The Best American Short Stories 2025.
She graduated from Brown University, earned an MFA at Brooklyn College, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Ucross, Ragdale Foundation, Art OMI, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lauren lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
February 15, 2022
NO SPOILERS
“The Wonder Garden”… a ‘linked-stories’-novel…..
…..a voyeuristic peak into contemporary affluent suburbia: brilliant, bizarre, jaw dropping, favorite book-of-the-year….put *Lauren Acampora’s* name on the map for me …. F O R E V E R.
I’m a huge fan of her work….will read anything she writes….and I’m excited to say this book is T E R R I F I C.
“The Hundred Waters”, is not a sequel …..but we return to the affluent suburbs….[this time in Connecticut]…
…… I was hooked, engaged, and curious from start to finish.
I LOVED IT.
The blurb got this right:
“A strange, sexy, and sinister novel of art and attraction, in “The Hundred Waters” Acampora gives us and incisive, page- turning story of ambition, despair, desire, and the price of fulfillment and freedom at all costs”
Nearwater, Connecticut……
…..Picture suburban wealth….
swimming pools, tennis courts, horse back riding, iron gates, stone walls marbled with lichen driveways that twist into a dream of trees, and
acres of wilderness between the estates.
Louisa Rader was no longer a teenage model, or ambitious driven-photographer in New York.
Instead, she was back living in Nearwater, where she had grown up. She married Richard, a successful older architect.
It was Richard’s idea to move to Nearwater.
Louisa was ready to let go of her own dreams in New York, for the more quiet lifestyle in a beautiful peaceful town to raise their twelve year old preteen daughter, Sylvie.
For work….Louisa was hired to run the local Art Center.
Heinrich, and Agatha, Steiger, and their son, Gabriel, eighteen years old, move to Nearwater, Connecticut from Austria.
They were art collectors, philanthropists, old nobility‘s —they came to the states for some legacy of banking.
The two families meet. The Steigers were hosting an evening gathering of cocktails, food, and socializing. Sylvie was allowed to attend too.
During the evening, Sylvie wanders downstairs into the basement where she meets Gabriel….who was painting.
Sylvie is totally intrigued with Gabriel.
He tells her he loves animals. He draws them during his lunch breaks at work, and has always loved animals and nature.
Sounds nice and innocent enough, right?….
NOT EXACTLY….
Here are some teasers ….
“The thing I wanted to tell you today is that I’m thinking about a new project”.
“Cool. What?”
“He tells her about the art installation he once saw, horses tied to the walls of a gallery and another piece featuring a taxidermy horse strung from the ceiling. He mentions his recent obsession with prehistoric hill figures, especially a giant horse silhouette carved out of chalk in the ground in England”.
“The girl looks up at him. Okay.”
“The boy tilts his face to the sky.”
“What I’m getting at is that I need a horse”.
“A horse?”
“Just a horse. He looks back down at her”.
“I can get you one”.
Gabriel tells Sylvie:
“The world could be destroyed. No, actually we ‘are’ being killed every second, and the world ‘is’ being destroyed. We need to remember and keep going. He points to the deer skull nestled in the corner of the room. That’s why I keep that thing. To remember that I am an animal. They say animals aren’t aware of their mortality the way humans are, but really it’s the other way around. So just remember you’re an animal and you’re dying. Now, and now, and now”.
In the meantime things are brewing with Louisa ….restlessness….etc.
Motherhood, womanhood, desires, and inner conflicting turmoil….
“In the hour before Richard comes home, Louisa undresses and lies on the bed. She wants to touch her own body but resists. Instead, she puts the macro lens on her camera and shoots self-studies. Just as she used to, she focuses in on tight details: the curve of her hip, the underside of her foot, it’s pink calloused landscape against the white sheets. All these years later, she crawls with self-consciousness—how had this ever felt natural?—but pushes past the feeling, past the shame at her body’s sags and blotches, and becomes a simple lens, seeing only shapes and textures, clinical and defamiliarized”.
Lauren Acampora is a gorgeous stylistic writer….
She writes with elegant intensity….and her books are fantastically
uniquely pleasurable.
I was not only curious where this was going from beginning to the end…but left thinking about it - long after finishing it.
“The Wonder Garden”… a ‘linked-stories’-novel…..
…..a voyeuristic peak into contemporary affluent suburbia: brilliant, bizarre, jaw dropping, favorite book-of-the-year….put *Lauren Acampora’s* name on the map for me …. F O R E V E R.
I’m a huge fan of her work….will read anything she writes….and I’m excited to say this book is T E R R I F I C.
“The Hundred Waters”, is not a sequel …..but we return to the affluent suburbs….[this time in Connecticut]…
…… I was hooked, engaged, and curious from start to finish.
I LOVED IT.
The blurb got this right:
“A strange, sexy, and sinister novel of art and attraction, in “The Hundred Waters” Acampora gives us and incisive, page- turning story of ambition, despair, desire, and the price of fulfillment and freedom at all costs”
Nearwater, Connecticut……
…..Picture suburban wealth….
swimming pools, tennis courts, horse back riding, iron gates, stone walls marbled with lichen driveways that twist into a dream of trees, and
acres of wilderness between the estates.
Louisa Rader was no longer a teenage model, or ambitious driven-photographer in New York.
Instead, she was back living in Nearwater, where she had grown up. She married Richard, a successful older architect.
It was Richard’s idea to move to Nearwater.
Louisa was ready to let go of her own dreams in New York, for the more quiet lifestyle in a beautiful peaceful town to raise their twelve year old preteen daughter, Sylvie.
For work….Louisa was hired to run the local Art Center.
Heinrich, and Agatha, Steiger, and their son, Gabriel, eighteen years old, move to Nearwater, Connecticut from Austria.
They were art collectors, philanthropists, old nobility‘s —they came to the states for some legacy of banking.
The two families meet. The Steigers were hosting an evening gathering of cocktails, food, and socializing. Sylvie was allowed to attend too.
During the evening, Sylvie wanders downstairs into the basement where she meets Gabriel….who was painting.
Sylvie is totally intrigued with Gabriel.
He tells her he loves animals. He draws them during his lunch breaks at work, and has always loved animals and nature.
Sounds nice and innocent enough, right?….
NOT EXACTLY….
Here are some teasers ….
“The thing I wanted to tell you today is that I’m thinking about a new project”.
“Cool. What?”
“He tells her about the art installation he once saw, horses tied to the walls of a gallery and another piece featuring a taxidermy horse strung from the ceiling. He mentions his recent obsession with prehistoric hill figures, especially a giant horse silhouette carved out of chalk in the ground in England”.
“The girl looks up at him. Okay.”
“The boy tilts his face to the sky.”
“What I’m getting at is that I need a horse”.
“A horse?”
“Just a horse. He looks back down at her”.
“I can get you one”.
Gabriel tells Sylvie:
“The world could be destroyed. No, actually we ‘are’ being killed every second, and the world ‘is’ being destroyed. We need to remember and keep going. He points to the deer skull nestled in the corner of the room. That’s why I keep that thing. To remember that I am an animal. They say animals aren’t aware of their mortality the way humans are, but really it’s the other way around. So just remember you’re an animal and you’re dying. Now, and now, and now”.
In the meantime things are brewing with Louisa ….restlessness….etc.
Motherhood, womanhood, desires, and inner conflicting turmoil….
“In the hour before Richard comes home, Louisa undresses and lies on the bed. She wants to touch her own body but resists. Instead, she puts the macro lens on her camera and shoots self-studies. Just as she used to, she focuses in on tight details: the curve of her hip, the underside of her foot, it’s pink calloused landscape against the white sheets. All these years later, she crawls with self-consciousness—how had this ever felt natural?—but pushes past the feeling, past the shame at her body’s sags and blotches, and becomes a simple lens, seeing only shapes and textures, clinical and defamiliarized”.
Lauren Acampora is a gorgeous stylistic writer….
She writes with elegant intensity….and her books are fantastically
uniquely pleasurable.
I was not only curious where this was going from beginning to the end…but left thinking about it - long after finishing it.
July 6, 2022
The Hundred Waters is a strange title for this book, one that had me pondering its significance. While the settings of an affluent Connecticut bedroom town (an hour outside NYC, easy to pinpoint) and visits to the gentrifying lower East Side of Manhattan rang true, not so relatable were the characters that seemed flat and two dimensional, and the much touted tension was easily predictable. I did enjoy the approach to contemporary art and its appeal, but the book ultimately left me unsatisfied.
April 27, 2023
2.3 rounded up - rtc
April 1, 2022
Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
I enjoyed this book, but it felt more like a short story than a novel. I had the same feeling upon finishing that I typically do with good short stories…hooked into the characters and wanting more. That said, I can appreciate the way the story ended. It makes sense and I’m not sure it would have benefited from anything more.
The Hundred Waters centers around Louisa Rader, an affluent mother from an artistic background in NYC. Louisa is married to an older architect and has one child, a preteen daughter, Silvie. The Raders live in Nearwater, CT, in a privileged setting, one where homes are much acred, with tennis courts and marble driveways. Horseback riding is a common activity among the young girls. Louisa lives a satisfying, if quiet life, but she is increasingly aware of the relative excitement of the life she used to live. When the Raders meet the Steigers, an Austrian couple who have moved to town with their 18-year-old son, Gabriel, Louisa’s quiet life falls under scrutiny. Gabriel is a budding artist and environmentalist, and he soon has Louisa and her daughter under his spell. What happens next will forever change the quiet lives of the Raders.
The characterizations in this story are terrific. I felt I really knew Louisa and her daughter and understood how they got caught up in Gabriel’s web. Gabriel was my favorite character – a new adult full of ideas and unable to control his urges to change the world (and change it now!).
My experience with The Hundred Waters leaves me interested in reading one of the author’s other works – The Wonder Garden – which received positive reviews for its portrayals of affluent life in linked short story format. Such a book can only be good in the hands of Acampora.
I enjoyed this book, but it felt more like a short story than a novel. I had the same feeling upon finishing that I typically do with good short stories…hooked into the characters and wanting more. That said, I can appreciate the way the story ended. It makes sense and I’m not sure it would have benefited from anything more.
The Hundred Waters centers around Louisa Rader, an affluent mother from an artistic background in NYC. Louisa is married to an older architect and has one child, a preteen daughter, Silvie. The Raders live in Nearwater, CT, in a privileged setting, one where homes are much acred, with tennis courts and marble driveways. Horseback riding is a common activity among the young girls. Louisa lives a satisfying, if quiet life, but she is increasingly aware of the relative excitement of the life she used to live. When the Raders meet the Steigers, an Austrian couple who have moved to town with their 18-year-old son, Gabriel, Louisa’s quiet life falls under scrutiny. Gabriel is a budding artist and environmentalist, and he soon has Louisa and her daughter under his spell. What happens next will forever change the quiet lives of the Raders.
The characterizations in this story are terrific. I felt I really knew Louisa and her daughter and understood how they got caught up in Gabriel’s web. Gabriel was my favorite character – a new adult full of ideas and unable to control his urges to change the world (and change it now!).
My experience with The Hundred Waters leaves me interested in reading one of the author’s other works – The Wonder Garden – which received positive reviews for its portrayals of affluent life in linked short story format. Such a book can only be good in the hands of Acampora.
September 8, 2022
At one time, Louisa Rader, the curator of a provincial art center in her affluent Connecticut town, was on the cusp of greatness. A former model and a talented photographer, her work was avant garde and her relationship with Xavier, a radical artist, was thrilling albeit a wee bit dangerous.
Now she is slipping into middle age with all the accoutrements of a life well-lived surrounding her: a successful older architect husband, a 12-year-old daughter, a coterie of upscale friends, and a position that still lets her get her toes wet in the art field she has long loved.
And then an artist-environmentalist-activist named Gabriel comes along. True to his name, he is a young man of strength and conviction, not yet out of his teens. A disciple of sorts to an artist who called himself Hundertwasser – meaning hundred waters – he is cynical about humankind and believes that after the foods sweep humans away, the animals will inherit the Earth. Many of his highly disturbing artistic works embody this theme.
Slowly but surely, both Louisa and her daughter Sylvie become mesmerized with him and are pulled into his orbit. For Sylvie, Gabriel represents a heady freedom and a passage into adulthood. For Louisa, he may represent a tinge of Xavier and an escape back to her exhilarating youth when nothing was safe, and everything was possible. When yearning and despair are ignited by an illuminating and powerful force, there is bound to be combustion.
While The Hundred Waters is a page-turning read, Gabriel’s character needs more development. It was challenging to decipher whether he was a sort of nihilist who just wanted to destroy everything around him or whether he was a manipulative visionary who would do anything to get noticed. His appeal, while partially understandable, needed to be a little more fleshed out. For those reasons, I give The Hundred Waters a rounded-up four starts and thank Grove Press for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
Now she is slipping into middle age with all the accoutrements of a life well-lived surrounding her: a successful older architect husband, a 12-year-old daughter, a coterie of upscale friends, and a position that still lets her get her toes wet in the art field she has long loved.
And then an artist-environmentalist-activist named Gabriel comes along. True to his name, he is a young man of strength and conviction, not yet out of his teens. A disciple of sorts to an artist who called himself Hundertwasser – meaning hundred waters – he is cynical about humankind and believes that after the foods sweep humans away, the animals will inherit the Earth. Many of his highly disturbing artistic works embody this theme.
Slowly but surely, both Louisa and her daughter Sylvie become mesmerized with him and are pulled into his orbit. For Sylvie, Gabriel represents a heady freedom and a passage into adulthood. For Louisa, he may represent a tinge of Xavier and an escape back to her exhilarating youth when nothing was safe, and everything was possible. When yearning and despair are ignited by an illuminating and powerful force, there is bound to be combustion.
While The Hundred Waters is a page-turning read, Gabriel’s character needs more development. It was challenging to decipher whether he was a sort of nihilist who just wanted to destroy everything around him or whether he was a manipulative visionary who would do anything to get noticed. His appeal, while partially understandable, needed to be a little more fleshed out. For those reasons, I give The Hundred Waters a rounded-up four starts and thank Grove Press for the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
March 11, 2023
Depending on your perspective this is a really good novel or a tired, problematic one. I’m pleased that it is both for me. It also adds to the allure of the book- not really knowing the author’s intention. On one hand it is a well written story about a wealthy, beautiful middle aged woman and the loss of identity. I liked her story because she is also an artist who lived a very full bohemian life before settling into her current claustrophobic glass house life, architect husband included. And I enjoyed the mother/daughter relationship that ties the book together.
On the other hand much of the story is boring rich housewife stuff and the addition of a young rebellious art boy makes it further cliché. I can see how this would be a tough sell to anyone looking for something not so white and privileged. That said, I’m still on the fence about how to interpret this book. I like the author’s writing even though it is a little busy with pomp and circumstance, but with her crystal sharp thinking I would gladly pick up her other books. There is so much in this short claustrophobic novel. And I just kinda liked it.
On the other hand much of the story is boring rich housewife stuff and the addition of a young rebellious art boy makes it further cliché. I can see how this would be a tough sell to anyone looking for something not so white and privileged. That said, I’m still on the fence about how to interpret this book. I like the author’s writing even though it is a little busy with pomp and circumstance, but with her crystal sharp thinking I would gladly pick up her other books. There is so much in this short claustrophobic novel. And I just kinda liked it.
July 20, 2022
3.5 - This was well written definitely, exploring environmental themes alongside parenting and feeling stuck in life. I personally liked the shorter length of the story and felt it was able to keep the reader gripped. The character of Gabriel never felt fully fleshed out and this meant I didn't fully feel the draw the mother and daughter felt towards him, but perhaps this was on purpose to keep a sense of mystery. The ending felt a bit abrupt and no real resolution but I would still be interested in reading more of this authors work in the future. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc!
September 29, 2025
I enjoyed the style of the writing but left feeling underwhelmed by the overall story. All the elements of it felt underdeveloped, which left the ending to be both jarring and unsatisfying.
September 29, 2022
I know absolutely nothing about art but I loved this novel as it explores relationships between many people of different ages! Louisa directs an art center and is married to Richard with 12-year-old Sylvie as their daughter. When they are invited to friends for a dinner one night, everything changes as they meet Agatha and Heinrich's eighteen-year-old son, Gabriel. So many unseen consequences of actions that seem to appear out of nowhere but of course impact more than one character's lives in a sort of domino effect! Fascinating and well-worth your time!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
June 3, 2023
One of the very best books I've read in a long time.
February 19, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press for the ebook. When Louisa was younger she was first a model and later a struggling artist in the New York City art scene, dating an unpredictable rising art star. Now, years later, she’s living a safe, but quiet, life married to an older architect and raising a young daughter in her affluent hometown in Connecticut. She meets a young artist who wants to challenge the world and she’s drawn back to her old art scene in NYC and feels that her life is empty and that the art center she runs is nowhere near the art she used to love and was a part of. Is this just a small bump in the road or does she need to completely change her life? A really sharp book with excellent characters asking tough questions.
September 25, 2022
This is my first book by Lauren Acampora...it certainly will not be my last!
We meet Louisa Radar, living back in her childhood home town of Nearwater, Connecticut. It's an upscale community, full of the rich and affluent. Louisa is married, has a daughter, Sylvie. She's restless and often thinks of her former life as a model and photographer. Louisa is in charge of the art center which keeps her somewhat busy and mildly happy. Then she meets a new couple who moves into town, along with their teenage son, Gabriel.
Soon Gabriel is involved in the lives of both Louisa and Sylvie. He seems dark and dangerous, yet both women are intrigued and taken with him. Things take a slow and drastic turn and the lives of many will never be the same again.
Acampora certainly has a way with words. This book is full of great characters, a flowing and exciting story line. There's a constant mood of tension, feeling uncomfortable, and menace.
A great book...check it out!
We meet Louisa Radar, living back in her childhood home town of Nearwater, Connecticut. It's an upscale community, full of the rich and affluent. Louisa is married, has a daughter, Sylvie. She's restless and often thinks of her former life as a model and photographer. Louisa is in charge of the art center which keeps her somewhat busy and mildly happy. Then she meets a new couple who moves into town, along with their teenage son, Gabriel.
Soon Gabriel is involved in the lives of both Louisa and Sylvie. He seems dark and dangerous, yet both women are intrigued and taken with him. Things take a slow and drastic turn and the lives of many will never be the same again.
Acampora certainly has a way with words. This book is full of great characters, a flowing and exciting story line. There's a constant mood of tension, feeling uncomfortable, and menace.
A great book...check it out!
September 17, 2022
3.5 stars. There’s no subtlety in the use of foreshadowing, so it’s pretty clear how this story will go…even the characters seem to know, all except the strangely oblivious main character Louisa, who even at the end is just about as clueless (and as unconvincing) as she is throughout the novel. Still, Acampora makes it interesting, and the novel hits its stride as it races towards its somewhat ambiguous conclusion.
January 4, 2023
3.5 stars. Beautifully written. Read The Wonder Garden - it's amazing
Read
September 23, 2022The first paragraph is awesome, and the ending is quite something. I'm still thinking about what it was about -- place, the art world, climate angst, generational tensions, married life/fidelity, parenting teens today, midlife, wealthy women's lives. Society horror story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2022
I thought this was going to be snobby and predictable but there were some surprising and welcome layers. A woman vacillating between her comfortable life and her desire to create art; a teenager experimenting with disobedience; a young artist eager to prove himself. Lots to unpack, a quick and fun read.
September 29, 2022
Surrealism and Existentialism in literature and art (fictional coastal Connecticut town, present-day; East Village, Manhattan twenty-years ago): “Contemporary art is a great catalyst for serious conversations,” said the co-founder of Washington, DC’s soon-to-open private museum of modern art, the Rubell Museum.
The obsession to create groundbreaking art underscored in The Hundred Waters does for literature what it does for art: act as a catalyst for opening provocative conversations on contemporary crises of the soul and the planet as we know it. Endangered animals, a feature.
Lauren Acampora’s second novel (her first, The Paper Wasp, also explores art and “twisted ambition”; also authored an award-winning short story collection, The Wonder Garden) seems meant to be read on two levels: as a mesmerizing, eerie story and a symbolic, existential one. Like modern art, open to interpretations.
Some elements are familiar, others weird. “Strange” is an adjective even the publisher uses in its dust jacket description. The prose is exceptionally hypnotic. Words are notably intentional, shaping characters and the plot’s ambivalence, ambiguity, edginess, mystique.
Louisa Rader was and still yearns to be an acclaimed avant-garde photographer. Formerly a fashion model who wanted to be seen as having substance. Superficiality, significance, and originality are themes. Now thirty-nine, she spent twenty-years living in the bohemian enclave of NYC’s East Village. She left before gaining attention in a new wave of Post-Modern photography. Acampora doesn’t tell us what photographic style Louisa has focused on but it’s in the realm of controversial and intimate, dropping clues. For instance, three highly controversial photographers whose work achieved notoriety are named:
* Hannah Wilke whose self-portraits are “innovative and provocative”
* Diana Arbus, another “radical photographer”
* Robert Mapplethorpe whose black-and-white imagery disturbed sexual boundaries. He’s quoted as saying: “I come from suburban America. It was a very safe environment and was a good place to come from in that it was a good place to leave.” Life in the suburbs, good and bad, underpins the novel’s tone, character development, plot, and messaging.
We meet Louisa having lived twelve years in a fictional, wealthy suburban town in coastal Connecticut that feels close to Manhattan but removed from an artist who made no effort to keep in touch with the artsy scene she was once part of. Fleeing from there, she married a man twenty-years older than her, Richard, and is the mother of a twelve-year-old girl, Sylvie. Richard is the reason she’s back in CT, where she grew up. He’s a sought-after contemporary architect with a conventional style of parenting. More so in his worrying, rightfully so, about his adolescent daughter who’s like her mother: moody and keeps to herself. It fits Louisa’s personality and artsy perspective that she prefers to give her daughter more freedom. A source of tension in the marriage, but not the only problem.
The family lives in a “glass house” Richard built. The glass, symbolic of cool, detached, is essentially how Richard comes across with Louisa and how she mothers Sylvie. There’s more to Louisa’s aloofness than not wanting to be a helicopter parent. At times, resentful of motherhood, as if parenting held her back all these years from experimenting with her artistic cravings. Richard’s too busy and self-occupied to notice. When “Louisa withdraws to the master bedroom,” the word withdraw is a perfect choice since she’s withdrawn from her family (and community) for a long time. If he’d paid more attention, might the story have a different ending?
A slew of other examples help us interpret a novel that straddles both beauty and darkness in an intentional, masterly way. Starting with the fractured, contemporary art design of the book’s cover. What does the imagery mean? The fragility of beauty? Note the pillowcase. Does it suggest the prose and story are dreamlike, surreal, emblematic?
At 240 pages, it would be a mistake to think this is a breezy read. Abstract, mysterious, shadowing like modern art’s role “as a stimulus that can provoke independent thoughts and even emotions.” With multiple themes on artistic ambition and its price; apocalyptic fears of climate change; and the invisible consequences of a life constrained by suburbia, The Hundred Waters reads as if it were hundreds of pages longer.
Louisa’s life is about to dramatically change as she’s finally been stirred to do something about her ennui, alienation. Taking on the role of director of the local arts center, she envisions increasing its visibility by exhibiting and nurturing bold artists, including transforming an empty barn into an artists’ residency program.
When a young stranger comes to live in the town, Gabriel, he’s the perfect storm for the shocking events that will upturn Louisa and Sylvie’s lives, as well as Richard’s and the community at large.
The intentionality of the prose sets the stage for the entire novel in the first two pages. A foreboding mood created between natural things of beauty compared to artificial, superficiality. The sinister overtones are so finely crafted I re-read them twice. Like an artist Acampora paints words, as though she contemplated the precise shade of color to affect our emotions. Doing so, she casts a spell on the reader, somewhat the way artist and environmental activist Gabriel does on Louisa and Sylvie. But he’s a stalker while the author seeks to grab our attention to take stock of what’s important in life while also considering the consequences.
The opening line introduces “trees in bright leaf, juvenile green.” Followed by a moneyed landscape – “tennis courts, swimming pools, guest houses” – interrupted by “acres of wilderness.” A few lines down, the picture is of “a montage of wrought iron gates, stone walls marbled with lichen, driveways that twist into a dream of trees.” Suddenly, in the same paragraph, we’re jolted outside of this insulated suburban world to: “Beyond is fire and blood.” To make sure we understand the novel has a lot to do with climate change the first paragraph ends with:
At the bottom of page one, another switch. To “a boy.” Page two tells us he’s “a man of eighteen, a free agent.” Meaning what? On this page, the boy (Gabriel) appears as an uncomfortable voyageur of “a girl” (Sylvie) he’s surreptitiously photographing while she’s “lost in a book” at a swimming pool. He feels creepy; she friendless, part of her state of mind.
Like Sylvie, Gabriel is an only child of a newly arrived couple from “Austria, old nobility” for whom Richard has designed a house for. When Louisa, anxious to get out of the house more than anything else, decides to attend their housewarming party her smile is “abstract.” Another great word to describe someone who makes a “snap decision” that the house “lacks charm and character,” barely engages with guests, avoids one family she shouldn’t, yet later tells Richard she had a “satisfying” time. Satisfying in what sense? Art?
The house is “heavily decked” with a range of art spanning the “Renaissance to modern art,” but there’s “nothing transgressive” like Lucien Freud’s nudes; or Neo Rauch’s surrealistic paintings; or Gerard Richter’s abstract visual works. All cited.
The Hundred Waters achieves what it set out to do. We may not like how the characters have set themselves up for what happens, but they do shake us up. Telling us not to lull ourselves into a false sense of security. To reflect on how we live our lives. Pay closer attention to the things that really matter – personally and more worldly.
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
The obsession to create groundbreaking art underscored in The Hundred Waters does for literature what it does for art: act as a catalyst for opening provocative conversations on contemporary crises of the soul and the planet as we know it. Endangered animals, a feature.
Lauren Acampora’s second novel (her first, The Paper Wasp, also explores art and “twisted ambition”; also authored an award-winning short story collection, The Wonder Garden) seems meant to be read on two levels: as a mesmerizing, eerie story and a symbolic, existential one. Like modern art, open to interpretations.
Some elements are familiar, others weird. “Strange” is an adjective even the publisher uses in its dust jacket description. The prose is exceptionally hypnotic. Words are notably intentional, shaping characters and the plot’s ambivalence, ambiguity, edginess, mystique.
Louisa Rader was and still yearns to be an acclaimed avant-garde photographer. Formerly a fashion model who wanted to be seen as having substance. Superficiality, significance, and originality are themes. Now thirty-nine, she spent twenty-years living in the bohemian enclave of NYC’s East Village. She left before gaining attention in a new wave of Post-Modern photography. Acampora doesn’t tell us what photographic style Louisa has focused on but it’s in the realm of controversial and intimate, dropping clues. For instance, three highly controversial photographers whose work achieved notoriety are named:
* Hannah Wilke whose self-portraits are “innovative and provocative”
* Diana Arbus, another “radical photographer”
* Robert Mapplethorpe whose black-and-white imagery disturbed sexual boundaries. He’s quoted as saying: “I come from suburban America. It was a very safe environment and was a good place to come from in that it was a good place to leave.” Life in the suburbs, good and bad, underpins the novel’s tone, character development, plot, and messaging.
We meet Louisa having lived twelve years in a fictional, wealthy suburban town in coastal Connecticut that feels close to Manhattan but removed from an artist who made no effort to keep in touch with the artsy scene she was once part of. Fleeing from there, she married a man twenty-years older than her, Richard, and is the mother of a twelve-year-old girl, Sylvie. Richard is the reason she’s back in CT, where she grew up. He’s a sought-after contemporary architect with a conventional style of parenting. More so in his worrying, rightfully so, about his adolescent daughter who’s like her mother: moody and keeps to herself. It fits Louisa’s personality and artsy perspective that she prefers to give her daughter more freedom. A source of tension in the marriage, but not the only problem.
The family lives in a “glass house” Richard built. The glass, symbolic of cool, detached, is essentially how Richard comes across with Louisa and how she mothers Sylvie. There’s more to Louisa’s aloofness than not wanting to be a helicopter parent. At times, resentful of motherhood, as if parenting held her back all these years from experimenting with her artistic cravings. Richard’s too busy and self-occupied to notice. When “Louisa withdraws to the master bedroom,” the word withdraw is a perfect choice since she’s withdrawn from her family (and community) for a long time. If he’d paid more attention, might the story have a different ending?
A slew of other examples help us interpret a novel that straddles both beauty and darkness in an intentional, masterly way. Starting with the fractured, contemporary art design of the book’s cover. What does the imagery mean? The fragility of beauty? Note the pillowcase. Does it suggest the prose and story are dreamlike, surreal, emblematic?
At 240 pages, it would be a mistake to think this is a breezy read. Abstract, mysterious, shadowing like modern art’s role “as a stimulus that can provoke independent thoughts and even emotions.” With multiple themes on artistic ambition and its price; apocalyptic fears of climate change; and the invisible consequences of a life constrained by suburbia, The Hundred Waters reads as if it were hundreds of pages longer.
Louisa’s life is about to dramatically change as she’s finally been stirred to do something about her ennui, alienation. Taking on the role of director of the local arts center, she envisions increasing its visibility by exhibiting and nurturing bold artists, including transforming an empty barn into an artists’ residency program.
When a young stranger comes to live in the town, Gabriel, he’s the perfect storm for the shocking events that will upturn Louisa and Sylvie’s lives, as well as Richard’s and the community at large.
The intentionality of the prose sets the stage for the entire novel in the first two pages. A foreboding mood created between natural things of beauty compared to artificial, superficiality. The sinister overtones are so finely crafted I re-read them twice. Like an artist Acampora paints words, as though she contemplated the precise shade of color to affect our emotions. Doing so, she casts a spell on the reader, somewhat the way artist and environmental activist Gabriel does on Louisa and Sylvie. But he’s a stalker while the author seeks to grab our attention to take stock of what’s important in life while also considering the consequences.
The opening line introduces “trees in bright leaf, juvenile green.” Followed by a moneyed landscape – “tennis courts, swimming pools, guest houses” – interrupted by “acres of wilderness.” A few lines down, the picture is of “a montage of wrought iron gates, stone walls marbled with lichen, driveways that twist into a dream of trees.” Suddenly, in the same paragraph, we’re jolted outside of this insulated suburban world to: “Beyond is fire and blood.” To make sure we understand the novel has a lot to do with climate change the first paragraph ends with:
“The West has begun its long burn while rains soak the plains. The Mississippi surges. A climate group blocks traffic with a boat, pours blood on the streets of London. In Paris, a great cathedral stands charred.”
At the bottom of page one, another switch. To “a boy.” Page two tells us he’s “a man of eighteen, a free agent.” Meaning what? On this page, the boy (Gabriel) appears as an uncomfortable voyageur of “a girl” (Sylvie) he’s surreptitiously photographing while she’s “lost in a book” at a swimming pool. He feels creepy; she friendless, part of her state of mind.
Like Sylvie, Gabriel is an only child of a newly arrived couple from “Austria, old nobility” for whom Richard has designed a house for. When Louisa, anxious to get out of the house more than anything else, decides to attend their housewarming party her smile is “abstract.” Another great word to describe someone who makes a “snap decision” that the house “lacks charm and character,” barely engages with guests, avoids one family she shouldn’t, yet later tells Richard she had a “satisfying” time. Satisfying in what sense? Art?
The house is “heavily decked” with a range of art spanning the “Renaissance to modern art,” but there’s “nothing transgressive” like Lucien Freud’s nudes; or Neo Rauch’s surrealistic paintings; or Gerard Richter’s abstract visual works. All cited.
The Hundred Waters achieves what it set out to do. We may not like how the characters have set themselves up for what happens, but they do shake us up. Telling us not to lull ourselves into a false sense of security. To reflect on how we live our lives. Pay closer attention to the things that really matter – personally and more worldly.
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
August 23, 2022
This is a story about the gap between youthful ambitions and adult experiences. Louisa Rader spent her early adulthood as a model and photographer in New York City. Her life among other artists was exciting but often uncertain. Over a decade later, Louisa's life bears little resemblance to those days. She is back in her wealthy hometown in suburban Connecticut, now married to a successful and older architect and with a preteen daughter, Sylvie. She works as the director of a local art center, which typically focuses on boring, local artists. Louisa hopes to remake the center to feature more provocative artists. Her life is easy but lacks excitement.
One night, Louisa and her husband go to dinner with another couple in town whose house Louisa's husband designed. There, Louisa meets their son, Gabriel, who is a young artist and environmentalist. Soon Gabriel becomes an important figure in the lives of both Louisa and Sylvie, and his efforts to make his mark on the world ends up having its most dramatic effects on the Rader family.
I am partial to novels that explore the dissatisfactions with suburban life, and this was a great, modern version of the genre. It captures well the attraction of passion and purity of youth, and how exposure to that as an adult leading a comfortable but routine life can fuel reflection and discontent. It also is an interesting exploration of the relationships between art and commerce and what it means to make one's mark as an artist.
Highly recommended!
One night, Louisa and her husband go to dinner with another couple in town whose house Louisa's husband designed. There, Louisa meets their son, Gabriel, who is a young artist and environmentalist. Soon Gabriel becomes an important figure in the lives of both Louisa and Sylvie, and his efforts to make his mark on the world ends up having its most dramatic effects on the Rader family.
I am partial to novels that explore the dissatisfactions with suburban life, and this was a great, modern version of the genre. It captures well the attraction of passion and purity of youth, and how exposure to that as an adult leading a comfortable but routine life can fuel reflection and discontent. It also is an interesting exploration of the relationships between art and commerce and what it means to make one's mark as an artist.
Highly recommended!
March 5, 2022
The Hundred Waters is a thoughtful book, an insightful look into the life of a privileged artist and her family. Louisa, once a fashion model and art photographer, is now the mother of a twelve year old daughter and married to a successful architect 20 years her senior. They reside in an affluent town in suburban Connecticut where Louisa directs the local art center.
Though it's been over a decade since Louisa has been part of the New York art scene, she feels drawn to it again, especially when she finds out that an old lover of hers will be at a particular art opening. Louisa attends the opening and then flits around a bit with people associated with her one-time gallery. On the one hand, she loves being a mother and her relatively secluded life in the suburbs. On the other hand, she longs to be taken seriously as a photographer again. Her photographs now reside in the back of her closet in Connecticut.
Louisa's daughter Sylvie is distant, pubescent, and secretive. Louisa and her husband are very protective of her but no child can be thoroughly protected. When Gabriel, the 18 year-old son of some very wealthy art collectors, enters their lives, Sylvie and Louisa will never be the same. Gabriel, an artist and drop-out draws on his charm, looks and charisma to attract both mother and daughter.
As Louisa tries to energize her art center with more contemporary art, she also realizes that the Board will only take a certain amount of visual chance. as they are tradition bound. Louisa tries to by-pass their control and show more edgy artists. Things come to a head at the art center when the annual Gala is held.
The novel is very well-written and the characterization is sublime. I was spellbound for much of the book. The ending, however, left me for a loop. I wish I had other readers to discuss it with because I am left with a muddled feeling,
Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this Advanced Review Copy of The Hundred Waters.
Though it's been over a decade since Louisa has been part of the New York art scene, she feels drawn to it again, especially when she finds out that an old lover of hers will be at a particular art opening. Louisa attends the opening and then flits around a bit with people associated with her one-time gallery. On the one hand, she loves being a mother and her relatively secluded life in the suburbs. On the other hand, she longs to be taken seriously as a photographer again. Her photographs now reside in the back of her closet in Connecticut.
Louisa's daughter Sylvie is distant, pubescent, and secretive. Louisa and her husband are very protective of her but no child can be thoroughly protected. When Gabriel, the 18 year-old son of some very wealthy art collectors, enters their lives, Sylvie and Louisa will never be the same. Gabriel, an artist and drop-out draws on his charm, looks and charisma to attract both mother and daughter.
As Louisa tries to energize her art center with more contemporary art, she also realizes that the Board will only take a certain amount of visual chance. as they are tradition bound. Louisa tries to by-pass their control and show more edgy artists. Things come to a head at the art center when the annual Gala is held.
The novel is very well-written and the characterization is sublime. I was spellbound for much of the book. The ending, however, left me for a loop. I wish I had other readers to discuss it with because I am left with a muddled feeling,
Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this Advanced Review Copy of The Hundred Waters.
March 5, 2022
The Hundred Waters is a thoughtful book, an insightful look into the life of a privileged artist and her family. Louisa, once a fashion model and art photographer, is now the mother of a twelve year old daughter and married to a successful architect 20 years her senior. They reside in an affluent town in suburban Connecticut where Louisa directs the local art center.
Though it's been over a decade since Louisa has been part of the New York art scene, she feels drawn to it again, especially when she finds out that an old lover of hers will be at a particular art opening. Louisa attends the opening and then flits around a bit with people associated with her one-time gallery. On the one hand, she loves being a mother and her relatively secluded life in the suburbs. On the other hand, she longs to be taken seriously as a photographer again. Her photographs now reside in the back of her closet in Connecticut.
Louisa's daughter Sylvie is distant, pubescent, and secretive. Louisa and her husband are very protective of her but no child can be thoroughly protected. When Gabriel, the 18 year-old son of some very wealthy art collectors, enters their lives, Sylvie and Louisa will never be the same. Gabriel, an artist and drop-out draws on his charm, looks and charisma to attract both mother and daughter.
As Louisa tries to energize her art center with more contemporary art, she also realizes that the Board will only take a certain amount of visual chance. as they are tradition bound. Louisa tries to by-pass their control and show more edgy artists. Things come to a head at the art center when the annual Gala is held.
The novel is very well-written and the characterization is sublime. I was spellbound for much of the book. The ending, however, left me for a loop. I wish I had other readers to discuss it with because I am left with a muddled feeling,
Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this Advanced Review Copy of The Hundred Waters.
July 25, 2022
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞.
Louisa Rader has come home to roost again in Nearwater, Connecticut, a far cry from her former life as a model and photographer in New York. Living in a glass house her architect husband Richard designed, which resembles a nautilus, in her hometown of understated wealth, she finds her days unchallenging. She protested returning, at first, but had to relent because why wouldn’t she want to raise their daughter Sylvie in this safe haven? The excitement of Louisa’s New York youth doesn’t seem real in this place they’ve settled upon, but it still tugs at her somewhere deep. Curating the exhibitions at the art center in town doesn’t sate her hunger, not while the locals demand ‘adhering to usual fare’, not the least bit interested in showing provocative work. She whiles away the time with dreams of her own photographs on display, including her modeling ones, but knows they are contrary to the reality of what the board wants. Uncomfortable is what makes exciting art, and Nearwater doesn’t embrace uncomfortable. They are far too provincial, to her mind. If Xavier could see her now, but he is buried deep in her past, that whole vibrant world of fire, raw talent, desire and ambition is now just a phantom life she can’t touch. The doors closed indefinitely, didn’t they? She has never really shared that part of herself with her husband, embarrassed by it, as he is nothing like Xavier. Marrying him meant putting the past behind her.
Richard has finished his commission, building a house for Agatha and Henrich Steiger, old nobility from Austria, clients he enjoyed working for. Philanthropists and important art collectors, Louisa understands they are powerful and meeting them is a thrill for reasons she can’t quite express. Invited into their home, it is their eighteen-year-old son Gabriel, an environmental artist, that intrigues Louisa and her daughter Sylvie, on the cusp of being a teenager. His work is unsettling, Louisa recognizes his gift, some people are born artists, much like Xavier was. She learns, encountering him again, that he wants to do large-scale projects but needs more space to work. His confidence oozes arrogance, but well earned. He has ideas, the sort that Richard has sought to protect his little girl from, “the coarse influence of popular culture.” Can ideas and art be dangerous, really? Richard knows his younger wife is closer to his daughter’s ear, while he’s a self-proclaimed Luddite. This world now, technology, it’s too much for impressionable children. With Sylvie’s silences, he worries more. The true threats are often the ones that lie undetected.
Sylvie is pulling away, it’s a natural progression, a way for children to gain independence, Louisa is sure of it. Richard views it differently, he is fearful, more overprotective. Louisa believes it a necessity to adapt to the times, that Richard needs to relax and accept the changes but the helplessness he feels is hard to embrace. It’s been a hard time on Sylvie, her horse riding days not enough to pull her out of her sadness. She just needs time, Louisa believes.
Sylvie is drawn to Gabriel from the first time she meets him in the Steiger’s basement, where she sees his artwork, focused on animals. She has been lonely for a long time, grieving the terrible loss of her friend and when she shares the story with Gabriel, it awakens a bond between them. Finally, someone she can talk to, someone who understands the anger she feels. Gabriel’s vision is a chance for Sylvie to come out of her sheltered world, and he enlists her help. But Louisa is aiding in his artistic development too, feeling pride in his growth. Being near him makes her feel electric with passion, and in a sense feels like time traveling back to her New York life, when youth was a promise of an exciting future in the art world, alongside the raw energy of Xavier. Her current life full of uneventful days disappoints her. Could she start again, at her age? Pick up where she left off? His presence is a catalyst, channeling desires in Louisa, but Sylvie is just as enchanted by his restlessness. It’s all coming back to Lousia through watching Xavier, like a fever dream, but we all have to wake up. She doesn’t realize she may have invited trouble in. The insulated world Richard has built around them may well be unraveling.
Louisa hasn’t fully left her thrill for edgier things behind, in finding an anchor she simply buried her ambitions. What I find interesting is how Richard, in her mind, is the source that put the flames out. It’s a bit childish as she did choose him while the life she was living was getting too heavy for her. She gets distracted, wrestling with her own desires, introspection that has her yearning for her former selves. While she admires her husband, she isn’t truly aware of him as a living, breathing person. Gabriel is quite the contradiction, a loose cannon of sorts, blinded by his passions. Sylvie, still becoming, naturally is excited by the older Gabriel’s attentions, and Richard is helpless against a changing world that threatens the very people he loves. Oh the chaos and damage thwarted dreams can cause. This was one engaging tale.
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Grove Atlantic
𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞.
Louisa Rader has come home to roost again in Nearwater, Connecticut, a far cry from her former life as a model and photographer in New York. Living in a glass house her architect husband Richard designed, which resembles a nautilus, in her hometown of understated wealth, she finds her days unchallenging. She protested returning, at first, but had to relent because why wouldn’t she want to raise their daughter Sylvie in this safe haven? The excitement of Louisa’s New York youth doesn’t seem real in this place they’ve settled upon, but it still tugs at her somewhere deep. Curating the exhibitions at the art center in town doesn’t sate her hunger, not while the locals demand ‘adhering to usual fare’, not the least bit interested in showing provocative work. She whiles away the time with dreams of her own photographs on display, including her modeling ones, but knows they are contrary to the reality of what the board wants. Uncomfortable is what makes exciting art, and Nearwater doesn’t embrace uncomfortable. They are far too provincial, to her mind. If Xavier could see her now, but he is buried deep in her past, that whole vibrant world of fire, raw talent, desire and ambition is now just a phantom life she can’t touch. The doors closed indefinitely, didn’t they? She has never really shared that part of herself with her husband, embarrassed by it, as he is nothing like Xavier. Marrying him meant putting the past behind her.
Richard has finished his commission, building a house for Agatha and Henrich Steiger, old nobility from Austria, clients he enjoyed working for. Philanthropists and important art collectors, Louisa understands they are powerful and meeting them is a thrill for reasons she can’t quite express. Invited into their home, it is their eighteen-year-old son Gabriel, an environmental artist, that intrigues Louisa and her daughter Sylvie, on the cusp of being a teenager. His work is unsettling, Louisa recognizes his gift, some people are born artists, much like Xavier was. She learns, encountering him again, that he wants to do large-scale projects but needs more space to work. His confidence oozes arrogance, but well earned. He has ideas, the sort that Richard has sought to protect his little girl from, “the coarse influence of popular culture.” Can ideas and art be dangerous, really? Richard knows his younger wife is closer to his daughter’s ear, while he’s a self-proclaimed Luddite. This world now, technology, it’s too much for impressionable children. With Sylvie’s silences, he worries more. The true threats are often the ones that lie undetected.
Sylvie is pulling away, it’s a natural progression, a way for children to gain independence, Louisa is sure of it. Richard views it differently, he is fearful, more overprotective. Louisa believes it a necessity to adapt to the times, that Richard needs to relax and accept the changes but the helplessness he feels is hard to embrace. It’s been a hard time on Sylvie, her horse riding days not enough to pull her out of her sadness. She just needs time, Louisa believes.
Sylvie is drawn to Gabriel from the first time she meets him in the Steiger’s basement, where she sees his artwork, focused on animals. She has been lonely for a long time, grieving the terrible loss of her friend and when she shares the story with Gabriel, it awakens a bond between them. Finally, someone she can talk to, someone who understands the anger she feels. Gabriel’s vision is a chance for Sylvie to come out of her sheltered world, and he enlists her help. But Louisa is aiding in his artistic development too, feeling pride in his growth. Being near him makes her feel electric with passion, and in a sense feels like time traveling back to her New York life, when youth was a promise of an exciting future in the art world, alongside the raw energy of Xavier. Her current life full of uneventful days disappoints her. Could she start again, at her age? Pick up where she left off? His presence is a catalyst, channeling desires in Louisa, but Sylvie is just as enchanted by his restlessness. It’s all coming back to Lousia through watching Xavier, like a fever dream, but we all have to wake up. She doesn’t realize she may have invited trouble in. The insulated world Richard has built around them may well be unraveling.
Louisa hasn’t fully left her thrill for edgier things behind, in finding an anchor she simply buried her ambitions. What I find interesting is how Richard, in her mind, is the source that put the flames out. It’s a bit childish as she did choose him while the life she was living was getting too heavy for her. She gets distracted, wrestling with her own desires, introspection that has her yearning for her former selves. While she admires her husband, she isn’t truly aware of him as a living, breathing person. Gabriel is quite the contradiction, a loose cannon of sorts, blinded by his passions. Sylvie, still becoming, naturally is excited by the older Gabriel’s attentions, and Richard is helpless against a changing world that threatens the very people he loves. Oh the chaos and damage thwarted dreams can cause. This was one engaging tale.
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Grove Atlantic
June 8, 2022
This book kept me turning the pages form the very beginning. I enjoyed the character development between mother/daughter and the way Gabriel was woven into their story. I am now looking to read The Wonder Garden by Acampora.
January 1, 2023
Characters are not well formed. I loved the Wonder Garden…this book left me cold.
Read
June 8, 2022The Hundred Waters is a thoughtful book, an insightful look into the life of a privileged artist and her family. Louisa, once a fashion model and art photographer, is now the mother of a twelve year old daughter and married to a successful architect 20 years her senior. They reside in an affluent town in suburban Connecticut where Louisa directs the local art center.
Though it's been over a decade since Louisa has been part of the New York art scene, she feels drawn to it again, especially when she finds out that an old lover of hers will be at a particular art opening. Louisa attends the opening and then flits around a bit with people associated with her former gallery. On the one hand, she loves being a mother and her relatively secluded life in the suburbs. On the other hand, she longs to be taken seriously as a photographer again. Her photographs now reside in the back of her closet in Connecticut.
Louisa's daughter Sylvie is distant, pubescent, and secretive. Louisa and her husband are very protective of her but no child can be thoroughly protected. When Gabriel, the 18-year-old son of some very wealthy art collectors, enters their lives, Sylvie and Louisa will never be the same. Gabriel, an artist and drop-out draws on his charm, looks and charisma to attract both mother and daughter.
As Louisa tries to energize her art center with more contemporary art, she also realizes that the Board will only take a certain amount of visual chance. as they are tradition bound. Louisa tries to bypass their control and show more edgy artists. Things come to a head at the art center when the annual Gala is held.
I adored this book so much and was left wanting so much more, but grateful for the time I was able to spend with Louisa.
Thank you to netgalley and publishers for providing an e-galley in exchange for my honest review.
Though it's been over a decade since Louisa has been part of the New York art scene, she feels drawn to it again, especially when she finds out that an old lover of hers will be at a particular art opening. Louisa attends the opening and then flits around a bit with people associated with her former gallery. On the one hand, she loves being a mother and her relatively secluded life in the suburbs. On the other hand, she longs to be taken seriously as a photographer again. Her photographs now reside in the back of her closet in Connecticut.
Louisa's daughter Sylvie is distant, pubescent, and secretive. Louisa and her husband are very protective of her but no child can be thoroughly protected. When Gabriel, the 18-year-old son of some very wealthy art collectors, enters their lives, Sylvie and Louisa will never be the same. Gabriel, an artist and drop-out draws on his charm, looks and charisma to attract both mother and daughter.
As Louisa tries to energize her art center with more contemporary art, she also realizes that the Board will only take a certain amount of visual chance. as they are tradition bound. Louisa tries to bypass their control and show more edgy artists. Things come to a head at the art center when the annual Gala is held.
I adored this book so much and was left wanting so much more, but grateful for the time I was able to spend with Louisa.
Thank you to netgalley and publishers for providing an e-galley in exchange for my honest review.
June 7, 2023
What I did enjoy about this book: the peek into the affluent lives of people who seemingly have it all, yet are still bored/miserable on the inside, recognizing that wealth alone isn’t enough for a fulfilling life, highlighting no one is exempt from tragedy, and exploring the imprisonment wealth can impose on people.
What made me cringe was Gabriel’s story line. Gabriel is one of those “environmentalists” who thinks he knows what’s going on in the world, yet barely scratches the surface on addressing the underlying causes of said perils. Art installations, affairs, manipulation, affluence and arson ain’t it, kid. Big Fossil Fuel doesn’t care about any of that, it doesn’t impact their revenue. But you know what does? Regulations.
Plus, every environmentalist knows the number one rule to being one is hypocrisy. All of us exist within the very system we hope to change. I use a laptop, a smartphone, internet, electricity. I drive a car, I eat meat. But I also work as an environmental specialist at an LNG plant that operates out of a national wildlife refuge. I tell people all day what they can or can’t do with respect to the environment.
And I firmly believe that my work proves environmental regulations have dramatically improved the quality of the air and water, reduced the public's exposure to harmful chemicals, given the public a greater voice in government decisions, and conserved fish, wildlife and other natural resources. But this can’t be achieved with ludicrous ideas “for art” or “shock factor”. It’s counterproductive and gives environmentalism a bad name. But again, the hypocrisy.
To me, shock factor does nothing to mitigate deficiencies. I cringed every time environmental topics were brought up and Gabriel really thought he was doing something about it. What a spoiled menace.
Other than that, I really liked the book!
What made me cringe was Gabriel’s story line. Gabriel is one of those “environmentalists” who thinks he knows what’s going on in the world, yet barely scratches the surface on addressing the underlying causes of said perils. Art installations, affairs, manipulation, affluence and arson ain’t it, kid. Big Fossil Fuel doesn’t care about any of that, it doesn’t impact their revenue. But you know what does? Regulations.
Plus, every environmentalist knows the number one rule to being one is hypocrisy. All of us exist within the very system we hope to change. I use a laptop, a smartphone, internet, electricity. I drive a car, I eat meat. But I also work as an environmental specialist at an LNG plant that operates out of a national wildlife refuge. I tell people all day what they can or can’t do with respect to the environment.
And I firmly believe that my work proves environmental regulations have dramatically improved the quality of the air and water, reduced the public's exposure to harmful chemicals, given the public a greater voice in government decisions, and conserved fish, wildlife and other natural resources. But this can’t be achieved with ludicrous ideas “for art” or “shock factor”. It’s counterproductive and gives environmentalism a bad name. But again, the hypocrisy.
To me, shock factor does nothing to mitigate deficiencies. I cringed every time environmental topics were brought up and Gabriel really thought he was doing something about it. What a spoiled menace.
Other than that, I really liked the book!
December 22, 2022
This novel has the feel of a story from The Wonder Garden that has burst its casing. Acampora’s portrayal of Louisa is intricate and convincing. The writing is always excellent. The external world and the internal worlds of the characters are rendered in equally vivid and concrete ways. She has a genius for motivating extreme behavior.
The most impressive aspect of this novel, and really of all of Acampora’s work, is her ability to create seriously flawed characters that nevertheless evoke sympathy and interest. Louisa is perceptive and blinkered, shallow and talented, immature and poised, a good mother and a clumsy mother, vulnerable and hardened, selfish and self-erasing, needy and complacent. Acampora knows our dramas come from our flaws and we all have them, and in doing so she takes risks with readers who would rather identify with, or find "relatable," purer and more obviously sympathetic characters. The truth I feel her planting her flag on is that more people are like Louisa than want to admit it. But in the end, she is not out to be satirical or judgmental. Louisa is human, not in a radiant or comforting way, not in a “my biggest flaw is that I try too hard” way, but in a real way, and she deserves our sympathy and interest. The novel simply says, these are the consequences when we are the way we are, with all of our desires and limitations.
An extra element to this that I enjoyed are the connections to The Wonder Garden. A number of main characters in the story collection have cameos in this novel, and things that have happened in the collection show up in the novel. It’s thrilling to imagine she will continue to enliven her postage stamp of Connecticut with layers of stories.
The most impressive aspect of this novel, and really of all of Acampora’s work, is her ability to create seriously flawed characters that nevertheless evoke sympathy and interest. Louisa is perceptive and blinkered, shallow and talented, immature and poised, a good mother and a clumsy mother, vulnerable and hardened, selfish and self-erasing, needy and complacent. Acampora knows our dramas come from our flaws and we all have them, and in doing so she takes risks with readers who would rather identify with, or find "relatable," purer and more obviously sympathetic characters. The truth I feel her planting her flag on is that more people are like Louisa than want to admit it. But in the end, she is not out to be satirical or judgmental. Louisa is human, not in a radiant or comforting way, not in a “my biggest flaw is that I try too hard” way, but in a real way, and she deserves our sympathy and interest. The novel simply says, these are the consequences when we are the way we are, with all of our desires and limitations.
An extra element to this that I enjoyed are the connections to The Wonder Garden. A number of main characters in the story collection have cameos in this novel, and things that have happened in the collection show up in the novel. It’s thrilling to imagine she will continue to enliven her postage stamp of Connecticut with layers of stories.
September 16, 2022
This is a little slice of suburban family drama. We have a model and artist from NYC who has settled in the CT suburbs with her (older) architect husband and tween daughter. She is struggling with her new identity as a suburban mom, and is intrigued by the 19 year old Gabriel, a neighbors son. The weird bit is that her daughter is also feeling drawn to him. Gabriel is an artist, focused on bringing attention to climate change and other man-made natural disasters. The book touches on the way youth feels about these kinds of issues, how can The Adults know this stuff and not do anything? The feelings within him are so big, you can tell he is hurting when he talks about them, he has this quiet rage thing going on that draws both mother and daughter into his orbit.
Between the family stuff and the environmental activism stuff this was right up my alley. If you saw and loved the movie Tully, this has that same kind of vibe. I did find some of the characters (the dad) to be a little annoyingly typecast, and some background elements that were mentioned in passing but not explored to my liking. I think the real issue I had that kept me from enjoying this more is that the writing style didn’t appeal to me in some way, but I stayed for the themes and the drama. The ending was a delight to me and did make up for the way some of the other scenes dragged a bit.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Grove Press/Grove Atlantic, for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review!!
Between the family stuff and the environmental activism stuff this was right up my alley. If you saw and loved the movie Tully, this has that same kind of vibe. I did find some of the characters (the dad) to be a little annoyingly typecast, and some background elements that were mentioned in passing but not explored to my liking. I think the real issue I had that kept me from enjoying this more is that the writing style didn’t appeal to me in some way, but I stayed for the themes and the drama. The ending was a delight to me and did make up for the way some of the other scenes dragged a bit.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Grove Press/Grove Atlantic, for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for this honest review!!
December 6, 2025
The Hundred Waters by Lauren Acampora is a mesmerizing psychological drama wrapped in the quiet menace of suburbia a place where beauty hides decay and desire blooms in the cracks of curated perfection. Acampora pulls readers into the affluent world of Nearwater, Connecticut, where Louisa Rader appears to have everything: a respected husband, a creative life, and a daughter growing up in comfort. Yet under the glossy surface, she is drifting haunted by the ghost of her younger, braver self.
The arrival of Gabriel, a magnetic young artist with an ecological mission and an unsettling charisma, destabilizes the carefully controlled Rader household. His presence charges the air: seductive, ideological, and quietly predatory. As Louisa and her daughter Sylvie fall under his influence, the family’s facade fractures, revealing the buried tensions and unmet desires that have long simmered beneath their curated calm.
Acampora excels at crafting psychological claustrophobia the feeling that something is off, that beauty is curdling into danger. Her writing is precise, elegant, and razor-edged, capturing the subtle manipulations of power, the pull of forbidden reinvention, and the way one person can tilt the gravity of an entire home.
Fans of Tampa, The Virgin Suicides, and Little Fires Everywhere will recognize the same blend of sensuality, dread, and emotional disquiet. The Hundred Waters is not just a domestic drama it’s a slow-burning psychological unraveling, where every ripple threatens to become a wave.
The arrival of Gabriel, a magnetic young artist with an ecological mission and an unsettling charisma, destabilizes the carefully controlled Rader household. His presence charges the air: seductive, ideological, and quietly predatory. As Louisa and her daughter Sylvie fall under his influence, the family’s facade fractures, revealing the buried tensions and unmet desires that have long simmered beneath their curated calm.
Acampora excels at crafting psychological claustrophobia the feeling that something is off, that beauty is curdling into danger. Her writing is precise, elegant, and razor-edged, capturing the subtle manipulations of power, the pull of forbidden reinvention, and the way one person can tilt the gravity of an entire home.
Fans of Tampa, The Virgin Suicides, and Little Fires Everywhere will recognize the same blend of sensuality, dread, and emotional disquiet. The Hundred Waters is not just a domestic drama it’s a slow-burning psychological unraveling, where every ripple threatens to become a wave.
December 8, 2025
The Hundred Waters is an unsettling, elegant, and quietly explosive exploration of art, desire, and the dangerous pull of reinvention. Lauren Acampora crafts a world that feels both refined and claustrophobic a suburban enclave where privilege and restlessness simmer just beneath the surface.
Louisa Rader is a richly drawn protagonist: a former model and photographer now living a curated life of stability that she can’t quite settle into. Her yearning for her past creative spark, for purpose, for something more vivid than her manicured existence creates the perfect fault line for the arrival of Gabriel, a magnetic young artist-activist whose intensity throws the entire Rader family off balance.
Acampora writes with precision and sensual tension. The novel’s hothouse atmosphere grows increasingly disquieting as Gabriel embeds himself in the family’s life, blurring boundaries with Louisa and exerting a transformative, almost predatory influence on her young daughter Sylvie. The result is a slow-burning, beautifully observed tale that examines the cost of artistic ambition and the seductive danger of longing for a life that might have been.
Dark, stylish, and psychologically sharp, The Hundred Waters is perfect for readers who enjoy literary fiction that probes the complexities of marriage, identity, and the magnetic power of charismatic outsiders. It’s a novel that lingers long after the final page haunting, elegant, and deceptively forceful.
Louisa Rader is a richly drawn protagonist: a former model and photographer now living a curated life of stability that she can’t quite settle into. Her yearning for her past creative spark, for purpose, for something more vivid than her manicured existence creates the perfect fault line for the arrival of Gabriel, a magnetic young artist-activist whose intensity throws the entire Rader family off balance.
Acampora writes with precision and sensual tension. The novel’s hothouse atmosphere grows increasingly disquieting as Gabriel embeds himself in the family’s life, blurring boundaries with Louisa and exerting a transformative, almost predatory influence on her young daughter Sylvie. The result is a slow-burning, beautifully observed tale that examines the cost of artistic ambition and the seductive danger of longing for a life that might have been.
Dark, stylish, and psychologically sharp, The Hundred Waters is perfect for readers who enjoy literary fiction that probes the complexities of marriage, identity, and the magnetic power of charismatic outsiders. It’s a novel that lingers long after the final page haunting, elegant, and deceptively forceful.
November 27, 2022
Alix Ohlin noted in a 6/3/15 New York Times Sunday Book Review piece, “I thought of Wharton when reading Lauren Acampora’s stylish debut collection of linked stories, “The Wonder Garden,”…. Like Wharton, Acampora seems to understand fiction as a kind of elegant design. As characters reappear in one story after another, Acampora reveals herself as a careful architect, gradually building a group portrait of a place that is financially comfortable but otherwise ill at ease. It is a place of evasions and ambivalence….”
Acampora has done it again with The Hundred Waters, following on the heels of The Wonder Garden and more recently The Paper Wasp. Beautifully written and with an abundance of carefully shared insights and keen observations, her prose powerfully captures the essence of each of her characters in ways that allow the reader to appreciate and understand how and why things aren’t always how they might otherwise appear. She powerfully details their lives and their intertwined stories – their longings and desires, their dreams and failures, youthful idealism, the confusion of adolescence, and the disappointments that haunt in middle age. One can easily imagine this work finding its way to a dramatic series on Amazon Prime – hopefully it will. This was a great read.
Acampora has done it again with The Hundred Waters, following on the heels of The Wonder Garden and more recently The Paper Wasp. Beautifully written and with an abundance of carefully shared insights and keen observations, her prose powerfully captures the essence of each of her characters in ways that allow the reader to appreciate and understand how and why things aren’t always how they might otherwise appear. She powerfully details their lives and their intertwined stories – their longings and desires, their dreams and failures, youthful idealism, the confusion of adolescence, and the disappointments that haunt in middle age. One can easily imagine this work finding its way to a dramatic series on Amazon Prime – hopefully it will. This was a great read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews