Editorial Content for Things We Found When the Water Went Down
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
At the bottom of Lake Ruin is a hole, perhaps a passageway. In it, Marietta Abernathy can hide away the items she collects from a dying world. And she can commune with the Women Beneath, all dead of violence. Perhaps it is to the hole at the bottom of the lake where Marietta flees when she disappears from her jail cell. Her 16-year-old daughter, Lena, is not quite certain. All she knows is that her mother, a second-generation pariah in their isolated northern town, is gone and has left behind only strange clues and a legacy of both suffering and resilience.
Lena narrates parts of Tegan Nia Swanson’s debut novel, THINGS WE FOUND WHEN THE WATER WENT DOWN, a work of speculative fiction composed of interviews, recollections, myths, poetry, dreams and visual collages, as well as Lena’s account of the search for her mother.
"Swanson’s book is one of fragments and glimpses, metaphors and nightmares, violence and longing. There is beauty in her work, and patient readers will find much to admire and contemplate here."
In November 2016, Beau Caelais’ local psychopath, Hugo Mitchum, was found dead in the water. Marietta was arrested for his murder two days later, which came as no surprise to anyone, not even to her daughter. She was an outspoken activist, railing against the environmental crimes of area businesses and standing up to figures like Hugo. However, Lena learns that Marietta and Hugo had a darker connection after she somehow escapes from or is moved from her jail cell, leaving behind only a puddle of water. Lena’s father, Patrick, slides into a deep depression, leaving the teen to fend for herself and search for her mother alone.
Lena begins to more fully understand Marietta and Marietta’s own mother, Ursa, who was murdered many years ago. Marietta created and managed the Paper Moon Menagerie, a museum that gathers natural ephemera of ecological and emotional import. She curates this collection of magical and devasting pieces with an obsession that Lena can only begin to understand and that gives some insight into her mother’s psyche.
Looking for Marietta is more than just trying to figure out where she may be. For Lena, it’s about truly understanding who her enigmatic mother really is and the beliefs and events that led to her arrest. It’s also about sifting through layers of story, secrets, nature and personal history to uncover what is hidden by Ruin Lake and generations of people along the Inland Sea. Marietta’s story is also Ursa's story, and Hugo’s story is also that of a quiet and damaged man named Ellis Olsen. Readers will discover, along with Lena, that Ellis plays a large part in the drama surrounding the missing and the dead.
THINGS WE FOUND WHEN THE WATER WENT DOWN has been called a “Nordic eco-noir,” and it is hard to pen a more apt description. Frozen lakes and rustic cabins, mining camps and rough bars, set the scene for this fantastical tale with its inventive composition. Swanson’s book is one of fragments and glimpses, metaphors and nightmares, violence and longing. There is beauty in her work, and patient readers will find much to admire and contemplate here.
Teaser
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, an 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 16-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.
Promo
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, an 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 16-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.
About the Book
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, an 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 16-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.
Audiobook available, read by Ann Richardson
