It delights again and again because, as in all the best science writing, the tale is stranger and more curious than one could ever imagine." Stephen Curry, the Guardian. With a true gift for prose, Kerry Washington conveys an intoxicating passion and gratitude for her life. I found myself captivated by every chapter, at her side, inspired by the full spectrum of her experience.

Vanessa seems to find some comfort in the small island where people mostly keep to themselves. We begin to find out more about Vanessa’s past and what she is escaping from. Wilson-Lee’s point is that we all need to be a bit more De Góis and a bit less De Camões. Employing prose as luscious as it is meticulous, Wilson-Lee shows us the world through De Góis’s eyes, a wonderful tapestry that includes Ethiopians and Sami, Hieronymus Bosch (he owned three of the master’s fever-dream paintings) and elephants that can write in dust with their trunks. In 1531 De Góis was hugely affected by an audience he had with Martin Luther in Wittenberg when the great man’s wife served him hazelnuts and apples. There was a point to the meal’s simplicity that went beyond grandiose self-denial. Luther believed that the obsession with international capitalism, which brought spices and other exotic delicacies pouring into Europe, was pointless and wasteful. Shopping locally and growing your own (Mrs Luther had a very nice kitchen garden) was the righteous way to go.This is one of the most ambitious books that I’ve read in a long time. It is both deep and broad.”— NPR, All ThingsConsidered

The meat of this story is how the woman – now called Willow – wrestles with how events had played out and how she copes with the mental torture this evokes. There’s a little more to the story, mainly in terms of the few people she engages with whilst on the island, and this weaves comfortably enough into the narrative. We talked with Gary White about the inspiration behind and process of writing The Worth of Water, his book with co-author and Water.org Co-founder Matt Damon. What inspired you and Matt to write a book? This book follows Willow Hale, who has moved to an isolated island and changed her name to escape her ex-husband’s crimes of abusing female children. Although the focus of this book is more on the fact that Willow’s ex-husband targeted their young daughter, Emma, who had walked into the water and drowned herself. Willow escapes to figure out whether she was blind to what was going on in her own home, or whether she’s inhumane for burying her head in the sand and allowing it to happen. Either way, she’s complicit. Open Water is the most mesmerising read. Caleb Azumah Nelson writes voice like a young Baldwin, placing himself both inside and outside the world he describes. Open Water drew me in, hypnotised me and left me, a few hours later, both devastated and a little high. This is the kind of novel which doesn't let go.' - Jan Carson, award-winning author of The Fire Starters I've struggled with Mr Boyne's work before now simply because he always seems to write a book that brings up difficult issues. It always felt like he had to have a cause.Experience blue space vicariously ... the research vessel MV Alucia in Antarctica, as seen on Blue Planet II. Photograph: BBC Natural History Unit She has been badly shaken by what has happened to her family, but she is still very much an individual and a pretty strong one at that. It’s not all tears and guilt and grim self-recrimination, so I can say I enjoyed reading her story. Among my most popular books are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and My Brother’s Name is Jessica. Erudite and engrossing…the book combines literary flair with deep historical insight… One of its many strengths is its vivid characterisation of people and places, not least those of Lisbon life high and low’

In our time with Willow we learn all about her husband, and just what he did to end up hounded by the media, as well as how their relationship formed. The story, of course, is drip fed to us, making for a compelling read. I became quite invested in Willow’s story and couldn’t tear myself away. Not going to lie, I thought this was one of the best things I have read this year. When John does it right, boy does he do it right. Provides essential reading for those seeking to explore how humanity’s relationship with nature has influenced the development of legal and political systems and offers invaluable insights into current debates surrounding climate change and sustainability. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.” —Lee C. Bollinger, President and Seth Low Professor of the University, Columbia University The Water Book will change the way you look at this ordinary substance. Afterwards, you willhold a glass of water up to the light and see within it thestrangest chemical, something thatconnects you to everything andeveryone else in the universe.Magisterial. Boccaletti has pinned down our complex relationship with our most vital resource.We live, like the ancients, in a hydraulic civilization – one determined to a remarkable degree by where and when we can find water. As he reveals with startling clarity, we face a water crisis as profound as our climate crisis. The fate of the Anthropocene hangs on the fate of water.” —Fred Pearce, author of When The Rivers Run Dry You know she's led a fairly privileged life but that something awful has happened that attracted a lot of press attention. You also learn that she's no longer with her husband, her older daughter is dead and her younger daughter doesn't really talk to her.

So many great global challenges are more solvable than we think—if the people who are facing those challenges, who have great capacity to solve them, are empowered. That’s how we’ve been able to change 43 million lives with safe water and sanitation. In this deeply researched and vivid story, Giulio Boccaletti deftly reveals how the struggle to master water is also the root of all organized society. From antiquity to today’s precipice of water scarcity, he spins a dramatic, sweeping story that forces the reader to reappraise all of human history through a water lens. A transformative, dramatic and revelatory tale of how our struggle to master water defines us as humans.” —John Bredar, Vice-President for National Programming, WGBH And it is solvable. That conviction is what brought together actor Matt Damon and water expert and engineer Gary White. Over time, they and their organization, Water.org, found a solution that works. Working with partners across East Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, they’ve helped more than 43 million people get access to the safe water or sanitation solutions they need to survive and thrive. Water is the most every day of substances. It pours from our taps and falls from the sky. We drink it, wash with it, and couldn't live without it. Yet, on closer examination it is also a very strange substance (it is one of only a very small number of molecules which expand when cooled). Look closer again and water reveals itself as a key to a scientific story on the biggest of canvases.The book starts out with Vanessa Carvin stepping onto a new island, clearly trying to leave behind a difficult life. She changes he name, cuts her hair and we slowly come to understand what brought her onto the island. Her husband was convicted of horrific crimes and Vanessa (now Willow) still lives with the shame and guilt of what her husband was and is. It’s a disturbing story of betrayal and of serious damage done, but also of renewal too. Not a comfortable read, but it is a short one. Another brilliant piece of writing from an author who never ceases to surprise me. Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water follows a family in southern India that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning - and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The brevity of the segments helps to break up the emotional intensity, while stories and anecdotes from Lucy’s upbringing relieve the adolescent angst. This is where the novel shines, in Andrews’s descriptions of Lucy’s friends and family, especially her single mum, her brother, who is born profoundly deaf, and her neighbourhood. Of her grandmother, she writes: “Everything about her was silver; her voice as she sang along to the radio in the mornings, the shiny fish scales caught on her tabard at the end of the day.” In Washington, Sunderland, “Boys at school knew the factory was looming over their future, waiting for them to grow into the overalls.”