Based on the rankings from the survey earlier this semester, the intellectual life committee has chosen
Emmi Itaranta's book,
Memory of water as the 2016-17 Common Read. Itaranta's
Memory of Water is a speculative narrative set in a world waring over water. China controls Europe, and water sources are controlled by the military. The young protagonist, Noria, is learning to be a tea master like her father and must choose how to steward a secret water source as her village struggles with dehydration and occupation by the army.
"water doesn't care for human sorrows. It flows without slowing or quickening its pace in the darkness of the earth, where only stones will hear."
You can read a sample here:
The library has several copies available for check-out. Books will be made available through the Provost's office later this year.
Emmi Itaranta was born and raised in Finland. She has an MA in Drama from the University of Tampere and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent, UK. Memory of Water is her first novel, was completed in both Finnish and English, and originally published as Teemestarin kirja. Since then, it has been translated and sold in more than 17 territories. In 2011, the novel won the Fantasy and Sci-fi Literary contest organized by Teos, a Finnish publishing house. Itaranta has worked as a columnist, theater critic, dramaturge, scriptwriter and press officer. She currently lives in Canterbury where she is completely a second novel.
Listen to the author speak about
climate change and her book.