Annie Ernaux meets Annie Dillard in this sultry story of a woman's obsession with a painter - and a river.
A woman is on an artists' retreat on an island in the St. Lawrence Seaway, taking time away from her partner and her daughter to write. There she encounters a painter who spends his days with his easel set up on the shore trying to capture the blue of the water. They are drawn to each other, and their desire builds, through conversations about art and the colour blue, into a passionate extramarital affair, both deep and fleeting.
Savage in its beauty, this new work from Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette is a novel of resilience and longing, staking out the territory of female desire, exploring how it's been regarded through the ages and how it's reflected in art and nature.
Following the bestselling Suzanne and To the Forest, this latest offering in a series of novels about women by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette captures the power and beauty of desire set against the power and beauty of nature. An accomplished filmmaker, Barbeau-Lavalette writes with a visual flair, embodying both the calm and the turbulence of the river that runs through the story.
"When Water Became Blue is a sparse yet powerful exploration of the complexity of female desire and how it is articulated in art and nature. It beautifully and cautiously relates the entrapments of contemporary life, the necessity of escape, and the enduring tensions between practicality and passion." – Stacey May Fowles, Literary Review of Canada
"About an ephemeral maritime love as rare and precious, and somehow still as reflective of ubiquitous potentiality, as the color blue once was, When Water Became Blue is a lush, intoxicating novel." – Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews ★ STARRED REVIEW
"A praise of the present moment, full of sensations and sensuality, When Water became Blue is a carnal and fervent journey, where every detail of a fleeting and profound love - yes, it can be possible - is magnified." – La Presse
Praise for To the Forest:
"Covering a period of grief, growth, and rebirth, To the Forest is an exquisite novel that revels in wild places." – Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews
"During a time of climate change and viruses, Barbeau-Lavalette fittingly honours the interconnectedness of all life on the planet." – Janet Pollock Millar, Room Magazine
