This is my second Boyne, and it hasn’t done much to convince me to read more. It was….fine.

I was bored in the first half and only the promise of less than a hundred pages remaining motivated me to continue. Boyne litters the book with references to the general awfulness of men and it just felt so very heavy handed. It was a joy to behold Luke and I’d love to have seen more of him.

The penultimate chapter was beautiful. The book’s saving grace.

Not one I’d hurry to recommend.

The concept of the story is not new: a woman tries to hide from her past by moving to a small island. She settles in to a quiet life, but has to come to terms with loss and the overturning of everything she believed about her life and herself.
The themes explored, are dark, but Boyne presents them with his customary stylish prose; sparks of humour, moments of sadness, hope and despair all nicely balanced throughout the story. Willow is a well-written character, convincing, and honest about her own failings.
My only criticism: it was too short! I was just settling in nicely to life on the island when I noticed I’d read 95% of the book. I really wanted to hear more from all the characters I was introduced to!

Such a moving and impactful story for such a short novel. John Boyne is very firmly one of my favourite authors and hasn't disappointed here. I could have read 150 more pages but does the story suffer due to how short it it? Not at all. The perfect book to get you out of a slump

I really enjoyed this novella, it was a very engaging and enjoyable read. I was hooked straight away. Because it's a short book, it doesn't hang around and waste time on things that are unnecessary to the plot. I haven't read anything by John Boyne before and I'm certainly going to dig into his back catalogue and hopefully find more books that were as engaging as this one. 4.5* from me, just a pity it wasn't longer!

Water by John Boyne

Water is the first of 4 novellas by John Boyne and I am here for the rest!
Vanessa arrives on a small irish island, a woman with a complicated past. At 176 pages, I devoured this is a few hours. John Boyne is just the ultimate story teller to me.

My heart broke for Vanessa, known to locals as Willow, her character is beautifully written.

Not sure how I'm supposed to wait for the next three installments!!

John is very popular in our library, and I look forward to telling our customers that they need to read this book!!

Vanessa Carvin arrives on an island off the coast of Ireland and her first actions are to change her name to Willow Hale and cut her hair. To the 400 islanders she is a woman escaping Dublin to live a solitary existence in a small cottage. But Willow is a woman on the run from a scandal.
Her husband has done something heinous but the choices she made in the past have consequences too. She must ask herself how complicit was she in his crimes, reflect on what she did, and did not do, and decide on the extent of her complicity before she can exorcise the demons of her past, find peace, and forge a new path forward.

Oh my goodness what an astoundingly brilliant piece of writing this is. It is a slim 176 pages in length, but wow, its impact is immense, and by its end you feel as though you have read something much more epic in length.
This novel draws you in from the very start, catching you up in its pages, and when you have finished, you know it is going to stay with you for a long time to come. It is compelling, propulsive, and completely immersive (no pun intended, given the title!).

As always with Boyne’s novels, the characters are skilfully created and realised. They have real vitality and plausibility, written with incredible depth and tremendous empathy, but deftly and with economy. You come to know them intimately, to care for them, and you really feel for Willow and the agonies she is going through.
Praise must be given to Boyne for the way, as a male writer, he has realised his female lead character, as it is authentically, and believably done. Also for his evocation of living on a wild and remote island with his descriptions of the natural world, the weather, the community, and its atmosphere.

Water reflects the question asked in his last novel, All The Broken Places: are you guilty by association if evil acts are committed by people you are close to through the ties of family, love and loyalty? It has aspects which some may find very challenging to read about, but in essence it explores the abuse of power - within marriages, families and relationships; within institutions like the church, the government and official bodies; within a patriarchal, traditional society; and within isolated communities.

Nevertheless, despite the examination of these very complex and serious themes it is not all unrelenting darkness and heavyness. Willow makes some wonderfully wry and amusing observations, the scene where she meets Mrs Duggan is comedy gold, and the ending is one of hope and positivity.

This is the first volume in a planned quartet of stories about the elements – Earth, Fire and Air are still to come – but here water provides an elemental, physical presence and also a metaphor, which runs throughout the novella’s pages. I cannot wait to read the other titles in this series, because this one is sublimely written.

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday/PenguinUK for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

What becomes of the broken-hearted? A no spoilers review

Oh John Boyne, once again, with tender, skilful, lethal precision you have managed to both slice my heart to shreds, and still offer some kind of sweet manna of hope.

And yet…………there is almost nothing I can say about this wonderful, short, utterly potent and concentrated novel, because to do so would ruin the journey of intense surrender and empathetic understanding which each reader needs to experience, innocently, unsullied by the revelatory footsteps left by other readers.

I dare not even name the narrator. Suffice it to say she is a middle-aged woman, and it is clear from the off that she has been devastated.

Water, I learn afterwards from reading the publisher’s blurb – and indeed had some idea of as the first page of the digital ARC – is the 1st of a series of 4 books in the overarching title Elements. The last of which is due for publication in 2025.

There is a unifying theme, where the element itself plays a central and crucial part. As it does here. The theme will be that the central character of each will have suffered some kind of trauma. I believe there may be some links, though each can be read as a standalone. I will no doubt have to re-read each one before embarking on the next. Re-reading Boyne is never, ever, a chore.

This is utterly beautiful, and, as so often, Boyne is never an unremitting tragedian. However terrible, however much he seems to be writing with his own heart’s blood, the snaky unpredictability of humour, of the wonderful eccentric oddness of each one of us, is always waiting to make the reader surprisedly laugh, even whilst they ache with tears, falling or unshed.

Just read it!!

I more or less read this book in about two hours. Once I got into it I had to finish. The novel opens up with a woman arriving to a island of the coast of Galway and changing her name and cutting her hair. It is clear she is trying to distance herself from something and that something is not made immediately clear but rather fed to bit by bit as the woman interacts with the island's inhabitants. I loved the humanity of the main character here. She's fully aware of her faults and her mistakes in her life. A recurring theme I noticed is the oppression of women by the men. It stood out to me how the women are burdened with their husbands faults and misdoings, their future plans derailed by marriage and families and they end up losing years so that their male counterparts can live comfortable lives. I really enjoyed seeing how Willow realises this throughout the book and begins to call out the selfish actions of those around her. John Boyne create a short but impactful novel that I would happily recommend to anyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the arc of this book.

The story revolves around a woman who is running away from something in her life, she runs to an isolated community on a remote Irish island, for a lot of the story it is only hinted at what she is running from, and whether she is the perpetrator or the victim. I love Boyne’s writing and this was no exception.

This was just BEAUTIFUL. I read it within a few hours and adored it. I’m glad it’s part of a series and am hoping some of the other characters will form part of that series. This story of a mother grappling with the aftermath of the crimes of her husband reads so authentically and she is such a real, flawed character.

JOHN BOYNE – WATER****

“The first thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name.”

Great opening sentence from a well-established author (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). A sentence which asks questions and sets the scene. A bleak wind-swept island off the Irish coast. She’s there for a reason (no spoilers) which gradually becomes revealed and the terrible secret which has publicly torn her family apart.

Thoughtful, well written, well deserving a read. An easy four stars.

‘Water is the cruelest of the elements and will swallow up anyone who challenges it’

This thought provoking short novel from John Boyne begins with Vanessa Carvin fleeing Dublin to live a solitary existence on a small island, changing her name and appearance in the process.
As her story unfolds she takes time to reflect on the personal consequences for her family because of crimes committed by her former husband, she also questions how guilty she is for failing to realize what had been going on. It’s a truism that when a crime is committed the perpetrator’s family are also victims, particularly with certain elements of social media and a rabid tabloid press.
The main theme of the book is abuse of power in all its different guises, and how culpable are those who shut their eyes to it?
Another major theme is the entrenchment, particularly among the older residents, in their attitudes to women and their hostility towards homosexuality and anything else that they perceive as ‘different.’
Quirky characters like Mrs Duggan and Bananas the cat lighten the mood of what otherwise could have been a rather depressing read and the author is always careful that the humor doesn’t detract from the serious topics.
John Boyne shows a real understanding of the human condition in this well written concise read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an ARC

I expect there are many woke folk who would be happy to decry male writers who attempt to write a book from a woman's perspective. I have news for them. John Boyne understands the thought processes and inherent guilt of women far better than many female authors I've read.

Water, the first in a series by Boyne about the elements, revolves around the wife of an Irish swimming coach jailed for paedophilia. This has real life echoes because Irish swimming was rocked by cases involving senior figures George Gibney and Derry O'Rourke.

Vanessa Carvin flees to an Irish island, changing her name and cutting off her hair. Her daughter Rebecca refuses to speak to her. She is weighed down by the guilt of not knowing what her husband was up to.

She doesn't live like a recluse but gets to know some of the 400 residents. She takes a 25 year old man half her age as a lover in a joyously uncomplicated and undemanding relationship.

Surrounded by water, and seeing the anger of water on a stormy night that nearly tore the door from its hinges, Vanessa starts to recover from the trauma of the media spotlight. A conversation with her husband and a surprise visitor lead us towards a redemptive and triumphant conclusion.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an eARC in return for an honest review.

Of course, John Boyne has only gone and done it again! He is honestly one of my favourite authors of all time! He has such a skill for captivating you into a story and making you form connections to his characters after so few pages and I just love it! This is the first novella I have read by him and I was just so impressed by how true he kept to his style and how many parts I loved in so few pages (compared to his other books that I’ve adored).

I love the role of the ‘Water’ in this book and how it was a metaphor for the entire story, the character growth and just the overall feel. I found the book to be really thought provoking and engaging.

The characters were going through a time of turbulence and a journey of self discovery that so much revolves around them accepting and overcoming their flaws and I just really found it so moving.

This book is definitely heavy and I’d recommend checking the trigger warnings but overall such a well crafted, immersive piece of literature

Water by John Boyne is a short novella, but boy does it pack a punch.
Vanessa Carvin arrives on the small island of the coast of Ireland and rents a cottage without TV or Wi-Fi. So, she can be alone. She is trying to get away from the media after her husband committed a crime and they think that she is guilty too. She hacks of her hair and changes her name to Willow, so hopefully nobody will recognise her and stays on the island and mingles with the fellow islanders. She reflects on her life and what she could have done differently so she can recover.
The story slowing reveals what happened before she came on the island and the relationships she had with each member of her family. It is also having some hard-hitting subjects regarding abuse and suicide.
This is another beautifully written and thought-provoking book that I was engrossed in from the very first page from the author and had some great characters and will be thinking for some time. I can’t wait for the next one in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's short but compelling and immediately brought me straight into the story. We are kept at a slight distance at all times from the main character, even as we get to know more of her story, and it works really well. The island is beautifully brought to life - the location, the weather and especially the people. A fantastic, truthful read based on a difficult topic.

Fabulous. As always.

Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Is Vanessa guilty or an accomplice? A wonderful character, torn and hiding from her previous life. Powerful , challenging and beautifully written short novel - looking forward to the next one!

I think I thought this would be more gripping than it was, following the actual crime that had occurred rather than the events after all the sentencing had been done.
It follows one woman’s journey to create a new life and identity in a remote part of Ireland after her husband has been arrested for crimes which you will find out about. Water explores whether she was complicit in his crimes and how you can start fresh after major family trauma.
It is a short story and is written from a refreshing angle, one you don’t always think about once everything is said and done. But I’m not sure I could warm to the main character, some of her behaviours when she was reflecting back to the time during the crimes and in the current moments were odd. It wasn’t very pacy and focused more on the isolation she felt in the cottage. Not the most memorable read ultimately.

‘Water’ is a beautifully composed exploration of one middle aged woman’s seriously incapacitating moral predicament. To what extent is she responsible for her daughter’s death and the suffering of other young girls? What has she done that means that her other daughter will not even respond to her WhatsApp messages? Pondering these questions, Vanessa Carvin turns her back on her comfortable life in Dublin, cuts off her hair, changes her name, and swaps her luxurious home for a basic cottage on an island of 400 inhabitants. Anonymous and alone, will she find the answers she needs to allow her to lead a better life?
Images of water run throughout this novella. Sometimes they are trickles, sometimes stormy waves. However, John Boyne’s writing is so masterful that they are never awkwardly or inauthentically introduced. The narrator recognises that, ‘We are composed of it. We drink it. We are drawn to it throughout our lives, more than mountains, deserts or canyons. But it is terrible. It kills.’ Having changed her name to Willow – a tree associated with water, Vanessa recognises that she is both protected and imprisoned by the water that surrounds her island life. It forces her to come face to face with her past actions and inactions, to spend time alone in thought, and to make new connections with the islanders.
This is a superb read. Boyne captures Vanessa turned Willow’s anguish perfectly whilst also showing that it is not impossible to renounce a previously conventional existence in a patriarchal, conservative community.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.