Things We Found When the Water Went D..., Tegan Nia Swanson
Things We Found When the Water Went D..., Tegan Nia Swanson
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Things We Found When the Water Went Down

Author: Tegan Nia Swanson

Narrator: Ann Richardson

Unabridged: 6 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/06/2022


Synopsis

In this dark and ethereal debut novel, a young woman tries to make sense of strange artifacts and unsettling memories in an effort to find her mother—missing since being accused of murder

When brutish miner Hugo Mitchum is found murdered on the frozen shore of a North Country lake, the local officials and town gossips of Beau Caelais are quick to blame Marietta Abernathy, outspoken environmental activist and angry, witchy recluse. But Marietta herself has disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Living on an isolated island with her father, Marietta's sixteen-year-old daughter, Lena, begins sifting through her mother's journals and collected oddities in an attempt to find her. While her father's grief threatens to consume him and her adoptive aunt Bea reckons with guilt and acceptance, it is the haunting town outcast Ellis Olsen who might have the most to lose if Lena fails to find her mother.

A Nordic eco-noir shot through with magical realism, Things We Found When the Water Went Down examines power, identity, and myth in a story that asks us to explore what it means to heal—or not—after violence.

About Tegan Nia Swanson

Tegan Nia Swanson is an advocate, educator, artist, gardener, and UU-Buddhist, most at home while in or near large bodies of water, or walking under the canopies of many trees. Things We Found When the Water Went Down is her first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Geonn on December 10, 2022

I REALLY loved this. I thought I had my top books of 2022 all locked in, but this one is definitely going on the list. It's a great story (TW: it does include graphic descriptions of sexual assault) told in a fairy-tale way. I recommend getting the audio AND a digital copy so you can read along, not......more

Goodreads review by Sandi on November 26, 2022

I absolutely loved this book. It's dark and complicated and a middle-of-the-night-page-turner that binds you to the characters and outcomes in a way that reminds me of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. The main protagonist is 16-year old, Lena, whose complicated and powerful mother......more

Goodreads review by Martin on October 25, 2022

This debut novel by Tegan Nia Swanson will be out in December of 2022. Catapult Press provided an early galley for review. The cover of this book immediately jumped out to me. The endless water and waves illuminated by the full moon is entrancing. This heralded something different, and indeed Swanson......more

Goodreads review by Dr. K on November 12, 2023

Less of a novel and more of a collage, poetry collection, and experimental epistolary (among other things) piece of fiction. For certain parts, that really worked. I kept turning the pages, wanting to know more. This book made me play detective, and I do enjoy looking for clues. It's a book rife wit......more

Goodreads review by Katie on May 09, 2024

This memorable, surreal story about a girl trying to understand why her mother was arrested for murder is a difficult one to review because it is non-linear and multi-media, so I will say the impressions/thoughts I had while reading: - the community culpability of so many sexual crimes - the searing......more