the first of The Elements 

I think John Boyne ´s Water - the first of four Elements in his series (?) - is one of the finest most touching most beautiful most well written books I have ever read, at least this year, any time in the near past time. I might put him on the top shelf with Rene Karabash - a totally new writer to me she was and there, on the same shelf stands (sits?) Benjamin Wood´s Seascraper and Andrew Miller ´s The Land in Winter, but this, this book, Boyne´s Water, it shook me, in a good way, as a good book moves you while reading it. 

Masterfully written, that would be the short conclusion.

The story, the plot, of a woman entering an island, straight away changing her name, changing her hair, her appearance not to be recognised and the family she left behind, to Dublin, to grave, to prison, to behind Messengers blocks. So, there is a daughter but after all, all that has happened, she does not want much to do with her mother, this Vanessa /Willow. It all will be revealed, why she left, what is she hiding, her demons, the demons in her family but in this island of 400 habitants, will she come to termes of the happenings in her life, will she find an answer to the question if she is compliant to the crimes of her husband or not. 

I was moved, I cried and I stood by this 53 year old woman, wanted to cheer her on, hold her hand and walk with her on the shores of this rough island and I felt her pain as a mother as a wife as a woman.
Without any doubt I will soon start the second book of this Boyne ´s bunch of four, The Elements and all I can hope he keeps up with this masterful writing, with the level of this Water.