“A Diary in the Age of Water”, June 18, 2020
Centuries from now, in a dying boreal forest in what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, yearns for Earth’s past–the Age of Water, before the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity. Looking for answers and plagued by vivid dreams of this holocaust, Kyo discovers the diary of Lynna, a limnologist from a time just prior to the destruction. The diary spans a twenty-year period in the mid-twenty-first century and describes a planet in the grip of severe water scarcity. Lynna, in her work for the international utility that controls everything about water, witnesses and records the disturbing events that will soon lead to humanity’s demise. A Diary in the Age of Water follows the climate-induced journey of Earth and humanity through four generations of women, each with a unique relationship to water. The novel explores identity and our concept of what is “normal”–as a nation and an individual–in a world that is rapidly and incomprehensibly changing.
“Evoking Ursula LeGuin’s unflinching humane and moral authority, Nina Munteanu takes us into the lives of four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. In a diary that entwines acute scientific observation with poignant personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Particularly harrowing are the neighbourhood water betrayals, along with Lynna’s deliberately dehydrated appearance meant to deflect attention from her own clandestine water collection. Her estrangement from her beloved daughter, her “dark cascade” who embarks upon a deadly path of her own, is heartwrenching. Munteanu elegantly transports us between Lynna’s exuberant youth and her tormented present, between microcosm and macrocosm, linking her story and struggles-and those of her mother, daughter, and granddaughter-to the life force manifest in water itself. In language both gritty and hauntingly poetic, Munteanu delivers an uncompromising warning of our future.”
—LYNN HUTCHINSON LEE, author, multimedia artist and playwright
“Transcendent.. .. A book of genuine power, A Diary in the Age of Water, is simply and beautifully told, profoundly true; a novel that invites us all to embrace the wisdom of ages. The story stirs its readers, teaches them about the importance of water, and leaves an indubitable imprint on the canvas of the literary and scientific world.”
—LUCIA MONICA GOREA, author of Journey Through My Soul
“In poetic prose with sober factual basis, Munteanu transmutes a harrowing dystopia into a transcendentalist origin myth. A sobering and original cautionary tale that combines a family drama with an environmental treatise.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Like the works of Margaret Atwood and George Orwell, whose flavours seep through, this story works as both literature and persuasion.”
—WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
“Even within its dystopia setting of growing authoritarianism and absurdities about the idea of ownership of domination of nature, Munteanu imbues her novel with a transcendent optimism that an ecological core will abide the sins of humankind, including a remnant of humanity being reborn as something new.”
—STRANGE HORIZONS
“A Diary in the Age of Wateris an insightful novel…a cautionary tale rummaging through the forgotten drawers of time in the lives of four generations.”
—DRAGONFLY.ECO
“An exceptional and thought-provoking dystopian fiction.”
—LITERARY TITAN
“Lyrical and dystopian, ‘A Diary in the Age of Water’ is as much an ode to water as it is a cautionary tale about the dire implications of climate change.”
—FOREWORD CLARION 5-STAR REVIEW
“A brilliant story… Munteanu gives us a dystopian shiver fest as if applying electro-shock therapy to our souls… Munteanu writes with fresh, stimulating style, and she takes us through these characters’ minds with a rich flow of metaphor and insight.”
—CRAIG BOWLSBY, author of Knights of Winter
“The story like water itself fills you, moves you, hypnotizes you, and eventually, totally engulfs you.”
—GOODREADS REVIEW
“A great literary work!”
—CLAUDIU MURGAN, author of Water Entanglement
“…One of the most important books of a generation.”
—REEDSY REVIEWS (5-star)
“Thoroughly researched and cleverly executed, A Diary in the Age of Wateris a must-read, especially for those who are longing for nature, and touch, while fearing both.”
—AMAZON REVIEW
“In a writerly style that appeals as much to the poet as to the academic or spiritualist, [Munteanu] makes us wonder what is in store for us in the next 20 years.”
—DANITA MASLAN, author of Rogue Harvest
“This is a significant book for our times … creative, inventive, and possibly prescient.”
—AMAZON REVIEW
A Diary in the Age of Water
by Nina Munteanu
Inanna Publications
ISBN 9781771337373
Published June 18, 2020
Trade Paperback 300p
Digital Ebook
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