Read in 2025 - 7: The Weight of Water

The Weight of Water

Anita Shreve

The other day when I was here for the weekend, my sister and I were in town on Saturday morning when the 2nd hand book sale by the church was on. As before, I methodically went through the boxes with books in English. This time, I didn't go home with a whole stack of books, but found this one interesting enough to buy.

In the 1800s, many Norwegians emigrated to the US. Those who were fishermen looked to settle in places where they could work in their trade, and the East coast was particularly attractive to them.

Ten miles off the coast of New Hampshire is a small group of tiny islands, some of them nothing more than a rock in the ocean. They are bleak and their surface rises only a little above the water. Constant wind and sea spray makes for precious few plants growing there, but fishing was good, and so some families settled there nonetheless.

Their way of life was one of hard work and few distractions, but financially, they were better off than they had been in Norway, and for some it was worth it.

In 1873, two women were brutally murdered on one of those tiny islands. The menfolk had all gone fishing, and two sisters and their sister-in-law were alone. One of the sisters was the only eyewitness and survivor, having hidden among the rocks all night in freezing weather in only her night gown.

A young man who for a time had been boarding with the family while working for the fishermen on their boat was soon identified as the most likely suspect. Everything pointed towards him, and after a trial he was hanged, claiming his innocence until the very end.

Up to here it's a true story, and passages from the questioning of those involved are quoted verbatim in the book. 

30 years later, the surviving woman, long back in Norway and terminally ill, writes down her memories of the time leading to the horrible event. That written testimony is fictional, as are those parts of the story that are set in our days:

A photo journalist is commissioned to take pictures and furnish other detail for an article about the murders. She, her husband and their little daughter travel to the island with the husband's brother and his girlfriend on the sailing boat belonging to the brother.

During her research, the journalist comes across the written memories and is fascinated by the events that happened so long ago at this very place. Then, during her last visit to the small island, things take a dramatic turn...

This was a strange book; jumping back and forth between past and present, sometimes from one sentence to the next. Although it was always clear where (and when) we were, it was a bit odd, especially since the fictional written testimony from 1899 was neatly divided in its own several chapters, while everything else was woven seamlessly one into the other.

The story itself was less gruesome than it sounds, but left me with sadness as well about the real events from 1873 (and before) as the imagined ones.

I had never heard of the author and learned a bit about her from wikipedia.