Narrators Rebekkah Ross and Gabra Zackman create a memorable portrait of 16-year-old Maddy, who delights in classical music, animation, and her family and friends, but who has been diagnosed with cancer. In a sweet and intelligent tone, Ross captures Maddy's efforts to live in the present moment and her ability to revel in her strong bond with her supportive mother, Eve; her kindly maternal grandparents; her lively school friends; and her caring boyfriend. Zackman expertly conveys the roller coaster of Eve's emotions, which swing from hopefulness to anguish. In an intriguing subplot, Maddy's excitement and apprehensions are revealed when she initiates an email correspondence with her biological father, Antonio, whom she has never met. An immersive and powerful exploration of love, friendship, and grief. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
All the Water in the World: A Novel
Narrated by Rebekkah Ross, Gabra Zackman
Karen RaneyUnabridged — 9 hours, 24 minutes
All the Water in the World: A Novel
Narrated by Rebekkah Ross, Gabra Zackman
Karen RaneyUnabridged — 9 hours, 24 minutes
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Overview
Maddy is sixteen. Smart, funny, and profound, she has loyal friends, a mother with whom she's unusually close, a father she's never met, devoted grandparents, and a crush on a boy named Jack. Maddy also has cancer. Living in the shadow of uncertainty, she is forced to grow up fast.
All the Water in the World is the story of a family doing its best when faced with the worst. Told in the alternating voices of Maddy and her mother, Eve, the narrative moves between the family's lake house in Pennsylvania; their home in Washington, DC; and London, where Maddy's father, Antonio, lives. Hungry for experience, Maddy seeks out her first romantic relationship, finds solace in music and art, and tracks down Antonio. She continually tests the depths and limits of her closeness with her mother, while Eve has to come to terms with the daughter she only partly knows, in a world she can't control.
With unforgettable voices that range from tender to funny, despairing to defiant, this novel illuminates the transformative power of love, humor, and hope.
Editorial Reviews
05/13/2019
Raney’s ardent debut examines love and loss through the eyes of Maddy, a vibrant 16-year-old girl diagnosed with cancer, and Eve, her loving mother. Maddy is spending the summer recovering from chemotherapy at her family’s lake house in Pennsylvania. While her thoughts often turn to normal adolescent concerns—such as her summer reading assignments and her crush—they are also studded with existential worries as she contemplates death, the existence of God, and the ephemerality of nature. Maddy begins to think about her father, who separated amicably from her mother before she was born, and decides she must get to know him before she dies. Over her final summer, Maddy and her father begin an epistolary friendship and bond over their mutual love of nature and advocacy for environmental protections. Reading the correspondence is painful for Eve when she later finds the letters. Eve, struggling to process everything, begins to spend long hours at the lake talking with her neighbor Norma. The book is broken into three sections, and is at its strongest when Maddy’s naive, searching voice narrates the story, which is effused with a passion for life and nature. However, the novel’s final section loses momentum, tapering off into Eve’s self-examination and excavation of the past. Raney’s pleasing tale is a deep, genuine investigation of memory, the pain of loss, and the strength of a mother’s love. (Aug.)
The Millions Most Anticipated
“In the midst of dealing with her relationship with her mother, learning to love for the first time, and all of the pains of being 16-years-old, Maddy is also diagnosed with cancer. Told between alternating chapters from Maddy and then her mother’s perspective, the story is equally heartwarming and heartbreaking.”
—Debutiful, 6 Debut Books to Read This August
“Domestic-fiction fans and readers who loved YA novels like John Green's The Fault in our Stars (2012) and Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything (2015) will fall for All the Water in the World, which is heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Unafraid to probe the complexities of parenthood and partnership, Raney is an author to watch.”
—Booklist, starred review
“An exquisite tracing of the tangled lines of mother-daughter love, loss, and grief.”
—Kirkus
“Raney’s ardent debut examines love and loss through the eyes of Maddy, a vibrant 16-year-old girl diagnosed with cancer, and Eve, her loving mother... Raney’s pleasing tale is a deep, genuine investigation of memory, the pain of loss, and the strength of a mother’s love.”
—Publishers Weekly
"All The Water in the World is a book about life and death, joy and grief fused together, both affirming and heartbreaking. In Eve and teenage Maddy, Karen Raney has created a mother-daughter relationship as fraught and passionate as any in recent memory. 'Do everything all at once' is Maddy's philosophy as well as the motto of this kinetic and beautiful book."
—Darcey Steinke, Author of Flash Count Diary and Easter Everywhere
“With a lyric and suspenseful intensity reminiscent of Sue Miller, Karen Raney has written an astonishingly moving novel about the boundaries and boundlessness of life and love.”
—Joanna Hershon, author of A Dual Inheritance and The Outside of August
“An extraordinary achievement for a first novel: tender, heartfelt and heart-breaking."
—Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill
"Karen Raney is a writer of rare gifts—nuanced characters, shimmering prose, and a riveting story. All the Water in the World is heart-rending in its power and gorgeous in its telling, a deeply rewarding and wholly unforgettable debut novel."
—Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This and Corpus Christi
Narrators Rebekkah Ross and Gabra Zackman create a memorable portrait of 16-year-old Maddy, who delights in classical music, animation, and her family and friends, but who has been diagnosed with cancer. In a sweet and intelligent tone, Ross captures Maddy's efforts to live in the present moment and her ability to revel in her strong bond with her supportive mother, Eve; her kindly maternal grandparents; her lively school friends; and her caring boyfriend. Zackman expertly conveys the roller coaster of Eve's emotions, which swing from hopefulness to anguish. In an intriguing subplot, Maddy's excitement and apprehensions are revealed when she initiates an email correspondence with her biological father, Antonio, whom she has never met. An immersive and powerful exploration of love, friendship, and grief. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2019-06-17
Sixteen-year-old Maddy Wakefield is dying of cancer, and in her last months, she has decided to find her biological father.
Maddy's mother, Eve, raised Maddy on her own with the support of her parents and, eventually, Robin, a loving partner and father figure for Maddy. She always told Maddy that her father, Antonio, didn't want children. (At least he didn't want them with Eve.) Yet as Maddy endures the ever harder struggle with leukemia, she decides it's time to contact him, and they quickly begin an email correspondence that Maddy decides to keep secret from Eve. While Maddy connects with her father, she also discovers first love with a boy named Jack Bell as they collaborate on a video project to raise awareness about climate change. The project inspires Maddy to turn her talents on herself, recording in her sketches the lines of her own mourning process, through increasingly emotionally raw self-portraits. After Maddy's death, Eve discovers her correspondence with Antonio, but it is Maddy's personal final edit of the animation project that triggers Eve's quest to find Antonio herself. In this, her debut novel, Raney intimately portrays the complex relationship between Maddy and Eve, illuminating their secret struggles with cancer and each other. With chapters alternating between Maddy's and Eve's perspectives, it reads, at times, like two rather different books stitched together: Maddy's chapters put us squarely in her world—full of teenage angst, emotions not yet dulled by experience, and a focused drive for answers. In contrast, Eve's chapters trace a more mature, grief-stricken journey. And as Eve seeks answers from Antonio (or perhaps she seeks a face that will mirror Maddy's one last time), she may recklessly risk the life she has built with Robin.
An exquisite tracing of the tangled lines of mother-daughter love, loss, and grief.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170437757 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 08/06/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
All the Water in the World
A lake is a black hole for sound. The wind, the crack of a hammer, the cries of birds and children weave a rim of noise around the water, making its silence more profound. When a turtle or a fish breaks the surface, the sound appears to come from within. Maddy, who is a natural philosopher, would want to know whether it really is sound, or just the possibility of sound, that issues from such breaches. I mention Maddy because to have a child is to have a twofold mind. No thought or action belongs to me alone. This holds true more than ever now.
Every morning that summer I made my way to the dock, moving my cup of coffee up and down to prevent a spill. Some days when I arrived, the mist was a thick white lid. Some days it was lifting to expose the pan of still water. Some days I could see circles of rain popping out on the lake before the drops reached my skin. Robin never came with me. He was busy building the new room in the attic, a blank place that smelled of raw wood and glue and had a completely different light from the rest of the house. Being up in the thick part of the pines, it should feel like a tree house if it’s ever finished.
When I reached the shore, the day I met our neighbor, the mist had already cleared. The colors were intense, almost unbearably so: sap green, white gold, blue of every kind. The dock wobbled underfoot as I stepped down, making me aware of both the mass and the instability of water. I set my cup on the low table at the end and brushed the dew off the two Adirondack chairs, whose green surface was bubbled and flaking. Those chairs needed repainting, but I knew if I mentioned it to Robin he would say in his hearty voice, “Hey, Eve, that’s a good job for you!” and I have more than enough to do while I’m here.
Standing to face the lake, I indulged in a moment of play, as though I were on a stage with the curtain closed behind me. I swung my arms. I did fifty jumping jacks. I mimed a person singing or shouting, until I felt myself to be rising, clothed in feathers and scales, a creature that forgets everything and lives by its wits.
I sat and sipped my coffee. Before me, the pine trees pointed up and their reflections pointed down, just as convincing as the real ones, and I allowed myself a few moments to believe in this second world.
At the far shore, something puckered the glassy surface. A kayak, paddling purposefully in my direction. There was plenty of time to retreat, but I stayed put. Must be the newcomers who were rebuilding the house across the way. They’d painted the house yellow. It is so exposed that we think they have violated the bylaws of the lake association charter. We think some shoreline trees must have been cut down to give them a better view. This also gives us an unwelcome view of a bright yellow house. It has even found its way into the reflection. Maddy would agree the color yellow is garish for a house. Garish may not be her word, but it is perfectly apt. Tawasentha, the highest natural lake east of the Rockies, has always been, and will always remain, a no-motorboats, cabin-in-the-woods kind of place, no matter how big the cabins have become. Forty years ago, when my father bought the lot, people built their own houses. Dwellings are still supposed to be some shade of brown or gray. The world needs all the trees it can get.
The kayak advanced toward me, dragging the shattered reflection along behind it. The occupant was a woman of about my age. She coasted alongside the dock, smiling openly. Her hair was pulled back into what resembled a reddish ball of yarn, and her arms and face were covered with freckles, which the sun had blurred but not managed to melt into a tan. The paddle across her knees was dripping from both ends. She certainly wasn’t the person I imagined would come from that house. I sat above her on the dock and waited.
“Is everything okay? You were waving. I thought maybe you needed help.”
“I was doing yoga,” I said, touched but annoyed to hear the word help spoken so casually.
The stranger’s intense blue eyes passed over me. I don’t think she believed me for a minute. “I’m Norma. Your new neighbor.” She gestured with her paddle, scattering drops. “We’re doing things to the place before moving in. I hope it hasn’t been too much of a nuisance. The noise, I mean.”
I shook my head. When I said nothing, she raised her paddle as if to lever the kayak backward. That was when I surprised myself by inviting her to join me on the dock. By the time she had tied up her boat, wiped her hands on her shorts, and sat down, I was already regretting my invitation. Our chairs were awkwardly close, but I could hardly adjust their position now. Nor could I finish drinking my coffee in front of her, or give in to the solitary pleasure of holding the mug between my hands and inhaling the steam. There was nothing to do but gaze together lakeward. Chitchat was in order. Better to get it over with.
“You have a family?”
“Three kids. Luke’s eight, Ben’s six.” Norma grinned. “Tanner’s forty-two.”
“I’ve got one of those. He’s in his playroom at the moment.” I nodded in sisterly fashion toward the house, although in spite of the messy marriage he’d left behind and occasional bouts of glumness, Robin was as grown up as they come. I leaned forward to study a dragonfly shimmering on the arm of my chair. I’ve always been fascinated by the way they alight and lift off without warning.
Looking up, I said: “I guess your house needs a lot of work.”
“Gutting, boiling, starting over from the ground up? According to Tanner. He’s an architect. I kind of liked it the way it was.”
“I don’t think the Gibsons had touched that place since the seventies. They kept the wood shingles. They left the shoreline trees alone . . .”
“Rustic charm, I think it’s called,” said Norma.
“You’ve picked an unusual color.”
She waved at her kayak, moored below. “First thing we did. I have a thing about yellow. My mother’s favorite color.”
I did not mention the bylaws. Instead I steered the conversation toward the goings-on of the association. Any pause I filled with a question. Was she native to Pennsylvania or a transplant? How had they come to buy the lot? Did her husband’s practice give him much time with the boys? I learned about Tanner’s loopy business partner and Ben’s tantrums. I studied Norma’s face as she recounted her children’s foibles in tones of high bemusement, as if motherhood were a hilarious accident that had happened to her while she’d been looking the other way.
She stopped talking and frowned into the sun. Under the freckles her skin shone as if lit from within. I felt a longing for the easy company of women. I know my smile is an unnerving thing these days. Still, I smiled at her when she turned, and she reached out and put her hand under mine, making me jump.
“Classy,” she said, meaning I did not look like the kind of person who would paint my nails. Purple this week, with diagonal white stripes. I snatched my hand back. What on earth was she doing here? How much did she know?
“I do it for Maddy,” I said.
Norma held my gaze. “Who is Maddy?”
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