With the lyricism of Ishiguro's NEVER LET ME GO, and the world building brillian
ce of Atwood, Emmi Itaranta'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 rem
ember,' I told him, but didn't realise until later what kind of promise I had ma
de. When Noria Kaitio reaches her seventeenth birthday, she is entrusted with th
e secret of a freshwater spring hidden deep within the caves near her small rura
l village. Its preservation has been the responsibility of her family for genera
tions.
