Water, Carry Me

by Thomas Moran

Book Overview

From the award-winning author of The Man in the Box and The World I Made for Her comes the breathtaking story of a young woman's betrayal, set against the beauty and violence of a divided Ireland. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573221384
• ISBN13: 9781573221382
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Powerful emotional ride

Owning an Irish American newspaper, and reviewing over one hundred books with Irish themes the last three years, I now have to revise my list of top ten favorite books, having just completed "Water, Carry Me" last night. As other reviewers have hinted, it's a book that stays with you. I woke up in the middle of the night still agonizing over the lovers, Uma and Aidan. I would love to see a sequel, with Aidan redeeming himself, writing to substain Uma's spirits, but I suppose he is beyond redemption and would have to live with his guilt, as he has all the years since the Remembrance Day Celebration. I have been in Northern Ireland, have visited the IRA prisoners in Long Kesh, questioning their choices and commitment. It is almost beyond understanding, though they've often tried to explain it to me. As an American, perhaps we can never understand. I also write novels about the Troubles, but in "Water,Carry Me", Moran has definitely raised the bar. I never wanted it to end, and while I knew in time Aidan's secrets would be revealed, I never foresaw the consequences to Uma. Since I work part-time in a bookstore, I've had my eye on this book for awhile. After reading "The World I Made For Her" I was pretty sure I'd love it, but had no idea it would be so powerful.

Simply told, beautifully written and tragic as the Devil

"Water, Carry Me" allows one to experience vicariously what life must be like in Ireland. Much what happens to Una seems as commonplace as life anywhere else yet the threat of violence hangs over the story like a pall. The sense of menace is always there, usually simmering in the background but sometimes bursting forth with brutal ferocity. This is a story that you won't want to put down and that you will be sorry to see end.

the best book ever

I bought this book on a whim and was so impressed I read the whole think at once. Thomas Moran is an amazing writer and the story of Una Moss is so real it's impossible to read this without feeling for her. After I put it down, the memory of the voilence and love and paasion stayed with me and will most likely never let me forget. I will definitely buy more Thomas Moran.

A poem, an elegy

The story and the words of this haunting and beautifully written story were the water that carried me through. It has been a few weeks since I finished the book. I am a prolific reader, and this this book stands out and stands tall. I was surprised and touched by its brilliant prose that read like poetry and more by the fate of the character, but I don't think one would have been possible without the other. At the end, one does feel very close to grief, the kind that makes you double over and scream silently. The tragedy of Una is heightened by the depth of her love and innocence, by the beauty of the landscape and the language, next to the incomprehension of cruelty and being caught in a political struggle that one has not sought. I feel that I have to immediately read "Man in the Box" and everything else that Moran has written and will write.

Thomas Moran is a Literary Chameleon

A fabulous review in the Washington Post Book World proclaimed Una Moss the 22-year-old Irish narrator of WATER CARRY ME to be "one of the most remarkable characters to grace fiction's pages". I have a two-year-old demanding boy and I need to be enthralled with every little bit of reading I squeeze in at night. So I bought the book. I loved it and I totally believed the novel's beautiful and sad world. And for a short while each night it was also 'my world'- because a part of me always becomes the protagonist, male or female when I am truly seduced by a good writer. This book does that! Una's voice is so genuine I could hear her accent, and the Irish sea town so real that I heard the sounds of everyday life as I read. I heard the violence and the terror, the shouts and the guns of Irish politics. I also heard Una's grandfather Rawney spin his tales. He is so unique I felt I must have met him once. I heard the young lovers in their most intimate moments, I understood their torments and inner secrets. It was real and I was enthralled. I don't normally care about Ireland's 'Troubles' but with this novel I found my precious free time put to good use and my money gladly spent. Thomas Moran is a true great writer.