Memory of Water: free sampler

By Emmi Itäranta

With the lyricism of Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, and the world building brilliance of Atwood, Emmi Itäranta’s effortless and poignant debut novel is a coming of age story full of emotional drama and wonderment.

Some secrets demand betrayal.

'You’re seventeen, and of age now, and therefore old enough to understand what I’m going to tell you,’ my father said. ‘This place doesn’t exist.’

‘I’ll remember,’ I told him, but didn’t realise until later what kind of promise I had made.

When Noria Kaitio reaches her seventeenth birthday, she is entrusted with the secret of a freshwater spring hidden deep within the caves near her small rural village. Its preservation has been the responsibility of her family for generations.

Apprenticed to her father, one of the last true tea masters, when Noria takes possession of the knowledge, she become much more than the guardian of ancestral treasure; soon, she will hold the fate of everyone she loves in her hands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Apr 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9780007590704

Emmi Itäranta

Emmi Itäranta writes fiction in Finnish and English. Her professional background is an eclectic mix of writing-related activities, including stints as a columnist, theatre critic, scriptwriter and press officer. She is the author of Memory of Water and lives in Canterbury, England.

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Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Prologue

Part One: Watchers of Water

Chapter One

Copyright

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

Everything is ready now.

Each morning for seven weeks I have swept the fallen leaves from the stone slabs that form the path to the teahouse, and forty-nine times I have chosen a handful among them to be scattered on the stones again, so the path wouldn’t look too much like it had been swept. That was one of the things my father always insisted on.

Sanja told me once the dead don’t need pleasing. Perhaps they don’t. Perhaps I do. Sometimes I don’t know the difference. How could I, when they are in my blood and bones, when all that is left of them is me?

I haven’t dared to go to the spring in seven weeks.

Reviews for Memory of Water

[amsee-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Water is the most versatile of all elements. It isn’t afraid to burn in fire or fade into the sky, it doesn’t hesitate to shatter against sharp rocks in rainfall or drown into the dark shroud of the earth. It exists beyond all beginnings and ends.”Set in a post-apocalyptic world where water is at a premium, Memory of Water is the story of seventeen-year-old Noira is an apprentice tea master, learning from her father the intricacies of the tea ceremony that has been passed down through the generations. Her education consists not only of the secrets of the tea ceremony, but also the tangible secret of a spring, hidden from the government and known only to the tea master of her village. Foraging through the plastic graveyard of garbage from the times before, Noira and her friend Sanja find a silver disc that speaks of water in the Lost Lands, which the government insists have no potable water and are inaccessible.As war rages on in distant parts of her country, water rationing becomes stricter and stricter until Noira has to make difficult choices–to move to the city to be with her mother, to attempt an expedition to the Lost Lands or not, and whether or not to continue to commit water crime by hiding the spring and help those in need in her village.This beautifully-wrought story is part coming-of-age novel, part warning, both about nurturing the planet and man’s inhumanity to man.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A tense and tender novel that frames a coming of age / apprenticeship story against the beginnings of a very plausible water-scarcity dystopia. The tension is occasionaly released through valves of childhood friendship, wonder, and a mystery surrounding a lost history.

[rachelep-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I won this book from Goodread giveaways. I well written, smooth, fast read about a futuristic dystopian society. A time when water is scarce and supplied by military. The main character is training to be a tea master with her father. She learns of many generations of secrets. She has to make some dangerous choices ,wonderful read.

[daemon6-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good speculative dystopian fiction. Primarily a portrait of one girls attempt to make a difference in a brutal world. Finely wrought writing and believably complex characters.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a world of scarcity post climate change water is a precious commodity. A story of traditions versus a military regime with political overtones.

[maaike15274 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful, slow paced story about a young girl who is forced to make her own choices under stressing circumstances. Dystopia with less action but a lot of tension and suspense. During reading I had the feeling there was a lot to read between the lines.

[chaiya_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Memory of Water is hauntingly lyrical, made me cry, and broke my heart. What might happen in the future if potable water was controlled by the government, and your family ran the town's only tea house?This book checks all my boxes: central female characters, psychologically complex, science fiction based on science, fiction that makes you think. Probably my favorite novel from 2014. (I read the English version of this novel.)

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just finished this book like ten minutes ago, I'm still very emotional. The ending sucked all the breath right out of me. It was painful and hopeful. Actually, that's it; that's the book: painful and hopeful.

A dystopian future in a world where waste ran rampant, climate change went unchecked, and water is scarce and rationed by the military. A story of tradition and change as viewed through a hereditary skill. A testing of friendship, family, and love.

It's quite lovely.

[junipersun · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent portrayal of a society centuries after sea level rise has reshifted geographic boundaries with consequent change in political rulership. Presumably set in a Finland which is now under the control of a Japanese-like society, access to clean water is strictly rationed, and people scavenge in "past-world" dumps for items to be repurposed.. Noria, age 17, has learned to be a Teamaster under her father's tutelage. A new Water Police suspects him of having an unregulated source of water. After her father's death, Noria now has to make decisions about this secret. This is complicated by relationships with the local villagers, Mikoa, her dear friend, is trying to support her sister & out-of-work parents. Other villagers are suspicious or desperate enough to do anything. Noria is either naturally intuitive or has been well-trained in reading the unsaid motives behind others' actions. She also has a zen-like perspective on life and the choices one makes.Then ending is not what you'd expect from a usual suspense theme.Heard as audio book. The reader's rhythm and voice greatly added to feeling like you are in a different culture, where one must weigh the consequences of one's actions.

[judithproctor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A curious book. Beautifully written with text that draws on varied imagery, and uses both the nature of water and the tea ceremony to reflect the narrator's thoughts and her approach to life.In this post-climate change world, water is in very short supply, and the government use the water supply to control the population. Finland, one of the last inhabitable areas has been ruled for a long time by people of Chinese origin and some of the names and customs reflect this. Much technology has been lost and people scavenge the waste dumps of the past for useful items, or things that can be converted into useful objects.It works well as a background and was pretty convincing overall. the only item that really threw me out of the book was an almond tree (almonds need large amounts of water and I can't see them being grown in a region with severe water shortages).

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Surprisingly stale. The story lacks coherence and believability. I want my end of the world stories to have reasons, not just scenarios.

[flying_monkeys_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Imaginative and engaging, lyrical and poignant, Memory of Water is an indelible novel that portrays a future that is all too possible.I will not forget Noria Kaitio anytime soon. She was such a real person, a strong female, yet a teenager nonetheless; I liked her immediately. The world in which this novel was set ... whew, I can still feel the horseflies against the insect hood and the sand and sun beating down relentlessly. Such evocative imagery coupled with a wholly believable and completely frightening premise made this a novel I will remember forever even if I'm not brave enough to re-read it anytime soon.4.5 stars"Of all silences I had encountered this was the gravest and most inevitable: not the silence of secrets, but of knowing (195)."

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a far future where water has become scarce due to climate change, a young girl tries to master the tea ceremony while keeping the family secret of the underground spring hidden near her house.This short dystopian novel was well written, slow and elegiac, musing on water and the loss of snow in what was formerly the Scandinavian region. Not a lot happens, but neither does the story unfold exactly the way I expected. While I greatly enjoyed the writing, I found myself wishing the world had been a bit more fleshed out. Clearly China has achieved some kind of global dominance in this future vision, but the details are hazy, perhaps purposefully, since a lot of history has been lost following a general collapse of civilization. Still, there is an obsession with the past; mining the dumps for bits and pieces of old junk that can be reused, Noria and her friend discover an old CD that they figure out how to play and learn about an expedition farther north where there may be water. They also learn a terrible secret, which is never revealed in the text, but which I assume is that the climate change they suffer under was caused by people. Even though the vagueness could be frustrating, I thought this was a rewarding read, quite different from other dystopians featuring a teen protagonist.Read in 2015 for the SFFCat.

[cosimas-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story failed to pull me in at the beginning, but I held out hope that it would get better. It never did.

I had so many problems with this book, I don't know where to start. The setting is very bleak, which is fine when combined with a decent plot, but that isn't the case here. The flow of the story is stagnant and the characters are about as dull as a box of rocks. The sense of place is severely lacking. Ridiculously convenient coincidences abound. The writing is often repetitive and VERY flowery. I couldn't read one page without inane meandering passages describing what was happening inside and outside with bugs and dust and water and tea and the human life span, or without the painful attempts to make everything sound poetic. Blah. Sometimes less is more.

The plot is so skeletal that without the fluff this book could have been less than 100 pages, possibly even 80. I've never had such a hard time picking up such a short book after having put it down, but I finished it and was glad it was finally over. I almost gave it 1 star but it's more like a 1.5. Needless to say, I don't recommend it.

[kale.dyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a world of scarcity post climate change water is a precious commodity. A story of traditions versus a military regime with political overtones.

[altheaann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Blurb comparing a book to Ursula LeGuin? Gets me to read it every time...

Yes, I can see where the comparison came from. It probably reminds me most of the feel of LeGuin's 'Annals of the Western Shore' trilogy. The similarity is not so much in actual content, but in what is dwelled on; the themes and pace.

This will also appeal to those looking for post-apocalyptic YA who are interested in more thoughtful, character-oriented stories instead of just action.

The setting is a dystopian future Scandinavia, which has been under an oppressive Chinese (New Qian, that is) rule for generations. Water is mysteriously scarce, and controlled by the corrupt and brutal military junta. Noria is a young woman who has brought up in the tradition of the tea ceremony, a ritual that helps give peace and stability to people whose lives have too little of those elements. She has a secret. Her family knows the location of a secret fresh water spring. When she is left alone in the world, will she choose to keep her knowledge to herself, even as her friends and neighbors go thirsty?

The themes of secrets, knowledge, sharing and trust run through the story, contributing to a lovely and satisfying tale. No, the author is not as masterful as LeGuin - but few are.

I received a copy of this title through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. Much appreciation for the book.

[titania86_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Memory of Water takes place in the future where water is very expensive and quite scarce presumably because of global warming and climate change. Our era is a distant past and very little of us is known to them. The book is lyrically written and flows very well. I would have liked to see a clearer picture on how the characters would live their day to day lives with so little water. If you really think about it, so much of what we do every day involves water. There were numerous other small things that seemed a little incongruous in the story. How did no one else notice how much water their family uses? Why didn't Noria leave faster when she knew someone posing as her mother was sending messages? These and many other questions grew frustrating and made the book not easy to enjoy. I loved the inclusion of the Japanese style tea ceremony even if it seemed quite impractical for the setting.

[msbaba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Memory of Water,” by debut author Emmi Itäranta, is an impressive and lovely literary work of speculative fiction. The overall mood is somber and meditative. The novel is set sometime in the distant future in the far north of Europe, probably in what was once Finland. The author does not make it clear how far it is in the future. What she does reveal is that after our era, there was a period of global oil wars together with abrupt climate change. Then a century followed during which mankind recovered and readjusted…and similar to the Middle Ages, many books were burned and much knowledge about the past was lost. In the new world order, time is now divided into three parts: the Past World, the Twilight Century, and New Qian Time. Earth no longer has glacial or polar ice. Worldwide sea levels have risen, reclaiming much of the land and drowning most major coastal cities. Oil and oil-based technology has disappeared. What energy there is appears to be entirely solar.In this new world, fresh water is scarce, highly valued, and in the complete control of the military. The government also controls what people can know about the present and the past. Everywhere it’s hot and dry. What was once Norway and Sweden are now Forbidden Lands unfit for human life because of some Past-World catastrophe. The present world is unstable and wracked by wars. Freedom to travel is severely curtailed. New Qian has taken over what was once Europe and many Asian customs have been absorbed into a new blended culture. This novel is the story of seventeen-year-old Noria Kiatio, the daughter of a Japanese-style ritual tea master, a position that holds great respect, and responsibility. Noria is studying to follow her father’s career path. As the book opens, Noria is ready to learn the family secret. It is a secret that dates back through an unbroken line of tea masters over many generations. Exceptional tea needs exceptional water and the Kiatio family controls a secret underground spring. In this world of severe water shortage and water rationing, owning a private hidden spring is a crime punishable by death. I found this novel slow to start. It wasn’t until I was at least halfway before the pace picked up and I was compelled to finish. But the early problem with pacing was more than balanced by an abundance of elegant, original, and thoughtful prose. Many of the passages were as exquisite as delicate haiku. For example: “Secrets carve us like water carves stone. If we let another person into the silent space a secret has made within us, we are no longer alone.”This is a very subtle and elegiac book. It must be read carefully and closely. The reader needs to stop at times to contemplate the inner meaning suggested by the prose. This is necessary for enjoyment as well as comprehension. If you read some of the reviews available online, you will find that some people were disappointed that the book did not reveal the details of the world-changing truth that Noria and her friend Sanja discover in an ancient past-world garbage dump. They are mistaken. The book does reveal all that is necessary about this discovery; however, it does this very indirectly, mostly through emotion, and only with the faintest hint at basic facts. What is given, is entirely enough…and exquisite in its brevity, clarity, and emotional shock. To have given more would be to spoil the overall Zen-like quality of the revelation. I was shocked and the more I thought about it, the more my eyes started to brim with tears. In my estimation, the ending was perfect…full of the horror of comprehension and fierce persistence of hope.The author wrote this book simultaneously in Finnish and English. It has won three Scandinavian literary awards. In retrospect, I am surprised by what a strong affect this book had on me. I was moved far more than I thought I could be by this theme of oil wars, global collapse, abrupt climate change, and accumulated knowledge lost.I did not realize what a strong reservoir of responsibility I maintain for what is happening to our world. This book tapped directly into that deep hidden vein of guilt. I am glad it provided some release.I look forward eagerly to future novels by this deft, sensitive, and skilled storyteller.

[passion4reading_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Noria is the daughter of a tea master and his apprentice, living in an unnamed village in what is now Finland, and what Noria calls the Scandinavian Union – under New Qian occupation – at an unspecified point in the distant future. Very soon it becomes clear that the world we know today has changed beyond recognition by global warming and the relentless plunder of Earth’s resources: the region where Noria and her family live is surrounded by desert; water is so scarce that it is rationed, and such a precious commodity that it is even used as currency, while the military controls the entire supply; there are no more winters, and the images of snow and ice can only be found in books; the world has run out of its oil reserves, so Noria’s village represents a curious mixture of a low- and high-tech society; wars were fought over oil and water in the past, while there is an ongoing war somewhere on the continent. Before Noria’s graduation ceremony that will see her become a tea master in her own right, her father takes her into the fells and shows her a secret spring that generations of tea masters – as watchers of water – have had the duty to protect, and makes her promise that she honour the secret too. But events have already been set in motion that will make Noria realise that sometimes it is the duty of a tea master to break with tradition …One of the joys of discovering a new author is that you don’t always know where – or for that matter when – you’ll end up; this is exactly the case here. Memory of Water is a thought-provoking coming-of-age tale written in the most beautiful, almost lyrical, prose, but there’s no getting away from the fact that the portrayed events are very bleak and that from the opening lines of the prologue the novel is moving towards its inevitable conclusion. One of the things that struck me was that Noria’s society appears to be dominated by women; there are men around, but they are usually of Noria’s father’s age and traders or merchants, and there is a distinct lack of young men, and I could only assume they were away fighting in the war; the men that do appear in the village are often not local and in the military, and as such to be feared. There is a tangential thread to the story about a past-world expedition that took up too much room in the novel and left too many questions unanswered, and one of these highly unlikely coincidences that are difficult to get away with, even when they’re written with the best intentions; yet for all that, there is some memorable imagery to be found within its pages: for example, the so-called plastic grave, where Noria and her friend Sanja like to dig for artefacts from the past-world; secrets acting like water; the painting of a blue circle on the door of someone’s house where the military decides a water crime has been committed; a poignant version of a cremation, where the dead person’s water is used to nourish the earth; and the ancient Greek notion that one has to cross the river to the underworld after death takes on an added significance. There were also powerful scenes that spoke to me as a mother, especially when they cannot provide water for their thirsty and sick children; coincidentally, my son had a high temperature this week and it felt like a complete luxury to simply open the tap and give him all the cold, clean water he needed straight away after reading about how the rations given out to the villagers are never enough. No second guesses where the author’s sympathies lie in the current environmental debates, and I believe we can all do with acting more responsibly, but for all that her novel does not come across as preachy. I can only guess that the epilogue contains a glimmer of hope, but I personally can’t see it and the novel is simply too bleak to be picked up again.I will end this review with the most powerful sentiment the novel has to offer in my opinion, spoken by Noria’s friend Sanja: when talking about the people in the past-world, she tells Noria that it is not them but their relics she’s thinking of, because they didn’t think about them, i.e. future generations, either.(This review was originally written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.)

[shetreadssoftly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta is a highly recommended, sensitive dystopian novel set in a future where water is scarce and controlled by the military.

Noria Kaitio, 17, is studying with her father to continue the family tradition of tea master. Set in future Finland, now part of the New Qian empire of Asia and Europe, global warming has made many areas of the world uninhabitable. Water shortages are common and what water there is is strictly controlled by the military and rationed out. When Noria learns the secrets of being a tea master, a role traditionally only held by males, and all the teahouse ceremony involves, she also learns a bigger secret: the location of a hidden spring unknown to anyone but her father.

Major Bolin has been protecting her father but when Commander Taro comes on the scene it becomes clear that he is suspicious and plans to discover their secret and destroy her family.

Noria also explores the plastic filled landfills of garbage with her friend Sanja, who is able to repair many broken things. They find a disk that mentions yet another secret, a secret Noria also wants to learn.
This dystopian novel by Finnish author Itäranta is set in one small area of a very change future world. Although some of the large global scale catastrophes are hinted at or mentioned, the setting remains in this one small part of Finland and the story stays focused on the effects the new world has on one person in that small part of the new world.

The writing in Memory of Water can be described as poetic, delicate, atmospheric, and expressive. The juxtaposition of a hard, harsh world being described in beautiful prose can be startling, but the contrast helps set the tone of despair even as the carefully crafted writing flows along so seductively. While there is tension in this novel, it is not overwhelming. It flows along at an even pace, picking up speed slowly.

Although not stated, I'd place this among other YA dystopian fiction selections based on the age of the character and the uncomplicated linear plot. The writing is a step up from most YA selections, however.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.

Excerpt
harpervoyagerbooks.com/2014/05/27/excerpt-of-the-memory-of-water-by-emmi-itaranta/

[davecapp-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What is History? A haunting and exceptionally well told story from a simple individuals viewpoint in a far from utopian future. Emmi Itäranta's story telling has the impact of Kate Wilhelm (where late the sweet birds sang), Ayn Rand (Anthem or We the Living), or even Ursula LeGuin (Left Hand of Darkness, Dispossesed).

[strider66_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pros: lyrical prose, philosophical, characters face difficult choicesCons: slowIn a world where water is tightly controlled by the military, Noria Kaitio is training as her father’s apprentice to become a tea master. Tea masters historically had a duty to preserve sacred springs, and her family has kept the knowledge of one in the fells behind their house secret for decades. But Noria finds it hard to keep the secret as her best friend Sanja and their village suffer under harsher and harsher conditions. This is a novel about the importance of water and how people survive under challenging circumstances. It’a a novel that questions motives and wonders who’s trustworthy in a world where helping others will get you killed.There’s very little action and the story is unravelled slowly. There’s foreshadowing of the ills to come and some gorgeous, lyrical prose. There’s also a lot of contemplative passages, mostly about water, but also about being in the moment, noticing the little things that always escape notice. It’s a novel about thinking deeply about life and appreciating the life you have, because life is always changing and you can never regain what you’ve lost.Despite the slowness with which the plot unfolds, the novel is a quick read. The characters and the situations they find themselves in are intensely interesting.It’s a beautiful novel, and sad. And while it contains hope, it acknowledges that sacrifices are required and that not everyone lives to see better days.

[nwhyte-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked The Memory of Water, and am prepared to forgive its standard plot for the twist ending, the intriguing setting and the beautiful style!