WINNER OF THE 2016 CALEDONIA NOVEL AWARD
“The cold beauty and sheer vastness of Lake Superior is the dramatic setting for this story of a family faced with the heart-breaking loss of their daughter and sister, Nora in a sailing accident. This is confident storytelling, rich in detail and with an elegiac quality. The characters are strong and Nate in particular is well drawn and believable. I liked the fact that the writer had the courage to keep the pace slow at the start and to let the extraordinary secrets of these ordinary people’s lives unfold gradually. Nate’s efforts to keep hope alive for his own and his parents’ sake and his increasingly desperate search for why his twin sister Nora went missing feel emotionally truthful and satisfying and the writing kept me hooked. This is the story that I keep coming back to, these are the characters who touched me most deeply and this is the novel I most want to read when it is published. I felt I was setting sail in the safe hands of a storyteller.” Kathryn Ross (Fraser Ross Literary Agency), judge, Caledonia Novel Award
“Andrea Crossley Spencer is a natural storyteller whose prose is as exquisite as the landscape she portrays. The reader will be compelled to race to the end to find out what happens to Nora, but will not want to miss the journey along the way. This is a book one will hate to finish. I found myself wishing to linger with Nate on the beautiful shores of Lake Superior long after I had read the last page. A more than satisfying and gripping story by a talented new voice.” Diane Les Becquets, author of BREAKING WILD and SEASON OF ICE
“This book is a perfectly drawn ode to grief, desire, and the profound impact we humans make on each other, in both positive and negative. There are no missed steps here; this is the kind of book one buys and keeps forever.” Ann Garvin, author of I LIKE YOU JUST FINE WHEN YOU’RE NOT AROUND, ON MAGGIE’S WATCH and THE DOG YEAR
“There’s wonderful writing in these pages. The author evokes the setting through rich detail and atmosphere, and conveys a strong sense of place.” Katherine Towler, author of the SNOW ISLAND trilogy and co-editor of A GOD IN THE HOUSE: POETS TALK ABOUT FAITH
“The writing is strong, the description and setting very strong, and the characters believable and unique. It’s just a matter of time before ‘The Promise of Water’ hits the shelves.” Contest judges, Whidbey Emerging Writers Contest – Northwest Institute of Literary Arts
“The past isn’t always as we’d like to believe, or as we sometimes force ourselves to forget, and as the layers of this beautifully told novel are removed, a complex story of self-identity and family takes hold. ‘The Promise of Water’ is a winner, start to finish.” Charlie Stella, author of SHAKEDOWN
The Promise of Water also was named runner-up in the Whidbey Emerging Writers Contest by the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, finalist in the 2014 Great Novel Contest by the Columbus Creative Cooperative, semi-finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel Award.
