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All the Water in the World: Shortlisted for the COSTA First Novel Award

Karen Raney

8 Reviews

Rated 0

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Family & relationships

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2020. A stunning novel about a teenage girl and her mother, as they grapple with serious illness, first love, family secrets and tragic loss.

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2020. Shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2021. Runner up for The Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2021.

'VERY MOVING, A WARM AND COMPASSIONATE NOVEL' Diana Evans
'TENDER, HEARTFELT AND HEART-BREAKING' Francis Spufford
Optioned for film by Monumental Pictures/Lionsgate.

Maddy is sixteen. 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 is also dying.

Told alternately by Maddy and her mother, Eve, All the Water in the World is a heart-breaking story of a family doing its best when faced with the worst, and a poignant testimony to the transformative power of love.

'DEEPLY REWARDING AND WHOLLY UNFORGETTABLE' Bret Anthony Johnston
'CAPTIVATING AND WARM AND REAL' Janet Ellis 'ASTONISHINGLY MOVING' Joanna Hershon
'A TENDER BRUISE OF A NOVEL' Mary Paulson-Ellis

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Praise for All the Water in the World: Shortlisted for the COSTA First Novel Award

  • An extraordinary achievement for a first novel: tender, heartfelt and heart-breaking. - Francis Spufford, author of GOLDEN HILL

  • I loved this. It's captivating and warm and real and I adored being in Maddy and Eve's company. The setting is perfectly described, the characters are perfectly drawn and the story is a layered delight. It almost broke my heart - and entirely restored my faith in human nature. - Janet Ellis, author of HOW IT WAS

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 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 Easter Everywhere

  • 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

  • Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Unafraid to probe the complexities of parenthood and partnership, Raney is an author to watch - Booklist

  • An exquisite tracing of the tangled lines of mother-daughter love, loss, and grief - Kirkus

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Karen Raney

Karen Raney recently gained an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths and was awarded the Pat Kavanagh Prize for All the Water in the World when the novel was still a work-in-progress. A painter, academic, and former editor, Raney teaches Fine Art at the University of East London. She grew up in the US and lives in London.

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