John Boyne

Publication Day for WATER.

Written on the November 2nd,2023

Today is publication day for WATER, the first of a four-novella sequence THE ELEMENTS.

EARTH, FIRE, and AIR will follow at six-monthly sequences, in May ’24, Nov ’24, and May ’25 respectively.

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.

But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?

Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did – and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.