Sister Water
1993
First Published
3.91
Average Rating
255
Number of Pages
The widowed Jessie Woolman, now in her seventies, her two married daughters, Ellen and Martha, and two grandchildren live in Ann Arbor, where the family owns a museum that harbors a meandering stream and historical artifacts of the region bounded by the rivers. Just as Jessie's aging mind begins to wander, Ellen's husband dies in a car accident and the Woolman family begins a new journey led by two very different Harvey Mack, a developer with an eye on the Woolman property and the grieving Ellen, and Sam Theopolis, a mystic hired to care for Jessie. Sam becomes both Harvey's rival and a healing presence for the family until a crisis descends and he, too, needs the protection of the Woolmans' innocent belief in the saving power of love. Combining sorrow and grief with considerable light-hearted wit and eccentric characters, Sister Water is a novel that will reach old and young readers alike. Through her lyrical prose, author Nancy Willard draws on the rich style of magical realism to create a narrative flow that is at once powerful and seductive. Important to the Landscapes of Childhood series, this novel raises significant questions about the state of childhood and how that state affects adult sensibilities.
Avg Rating
3.91
Number of Ratings
105
5 STARS
35%
4 STARS
32%
3 STARS
22%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author
Nancy Willard
Author · 41 books
NANCY WILLARD was an award-winning children's author, poet, and essayist who received the Newbery Medal in 1982 for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She wrote dozens of volumes of children's fiction and poetry, including The Flying Bed, Sweep Dreams, and Cinderella's Dress. She also authored two novels for adults, Things Invisible to See and Sister Water, and twelve books of poetry, including Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems. She lived with her husband, photographer Eric Lindbloom, and taught at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
