A small group of social outcasts form a reluctant community on an abandoned farm in rural Denmark in the 1800s. Betrayal, flight and redemption, framed by relationships stretched across social standing, age and gender, The Water Farm brings their world to life. Cecil Bødker is one of Denmark's literary masters.
The Water Farm is mesmerizing and tender. A deceptively simple story, with characters both real and extraordinary. It's surprising how relevant a book this is, exploring the making of art and the forging of human connections outside societal norms.
Ellen Meeropol, author of Kinship of Clover
Michael Goldman's translation of The Water Farm is riveting. This world is steeped with the unexpected, where fourteen year old girls have iron resolve, old men care for lost children, and love walks hand in hand with trust. No wonder Cecil Bødker is a literary treasure of Denmark.
Jacqueline Sheehan, New York Times bestselling novelist,
author of The Center of the World
…The Water Farm is a place of death, slowly returning to life.
Søren Vinterberg, Information
…every word believable. Quite a rare achievement. The Water Farm is the ideal of fine, unassuming, story-telling craft.
Bent Mohn, Politikken
Cecil Bødker has cemented herself as one of the most important Danish authors of our time. Touching, harrowing, uplifting, The Water Farm, is as much a delight to read as it is impossible to put down.
Casey Harding, Senior Fiction Editor, The Missing Slate