At the age of eighty, Brendan Auberon, a former monk, is now confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home. As a last wish, he is desperate to catch a final glimpse of the two hundred acres of woodland on which once stood his parental home. Half a century ago, the owners of the land were evicted from their homes and the land was flooded to create a reservoir which would provide water for the big city.
āThe Forms of Waterā is the story of what happens when Brendan convinces his staid nephew Henry to hijack the nursing home van to make this ancestral visit. What begins as a joke becomes infinitely more complex as the family roles begin to rearrange themselves.
A rich and absorbing look at the complexities of family life, at grief and at the ties that continue to bind us to the past.
Andrea Barrett lives in Rochester, NY. She is the author of five novels, and two collections of stories, āShip Feverā, which won the National Book Award in 1996, and āServants of the Mapā.