The Sweetness of Water

By: Nathan Harris

Narrated by: William DeMeritt

An Obama Summer Reading Choice and New York Times best seller

An extraordinary novel of life after slavery for listeners of Washington Black, The Underground Railroad and Days without End.

In the dying days of the American Civil War, newly freed brothers Landry and Prentiss find themselves cast into the world without a penny to their names. Forced to hide out in the woods near their former Georgia plantation, they're soon discovered by the land's owner, George Walker, a man still reeling from the loss of his son in the war.

When the brothers begin to live and work on George's farm, the tentative bonds of trust and union begin to blossom between the strangers. But this sanctuary survives on a knife's edge, and it isn't long before the inhabitants of the nearby town of Old Ox react with fury at the alliances being formed only a few miles away.

©2021 Nathan Harris (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Better than any debut novel has a right to be." (Richard Russo)

"A fine, lyrical novel, impressive in its complex interweaving of the grand and the intimate, of the personal and political." (Observer)

"[A] highly accomplished debut." (Sunday Times)

Great sweeping saga

Unsentimental but deeply affecting with wonderfully drawn characters. The narration was at times uneven in terms of accents.

wonderful and powerful read

beautiful narration. what a wonderful read. Beautifully written. will stay wifh me fir a long

Exceptional performance

This is a nice story, full of optimism. Some may find it a bit too much of wishful thinking. But the performance of the reader was excellent. He should get an award for this.

Beautiful prose

I was captivated by the eloquent words beginning this novel. Mr. Harris has a great style and I believe that bodes well for his future.
Regarding the characters in the book, I found few of them to be particularly likable. Still, they had a story to tell, though often in a rambling, mildly irritating way.
If there was anything I disliked about the book, it was the lack of attention paid to realism of the period. The Walkers live in what is described as a cabin, yet it has a study, a bathroom and a kitchen sink. Also, there seems to be no issue with money or food or clothing in post-war, Reconstruction-era Georgia. These problems seem to have been overlooked and that makes no sense to me.
As for the narrator, his voice was pleasant for the most part, and the accents weren’t so terrible as usual.