Scottie Winston, a lawyer/lobbiest for the ski industry in Vermont, is married to a dowser, a gift that runs in the Avery family. Laura's gift is moderate; her sister Patience is one of the strongest dowsers in the country, and believes that Scottie's daughter Miranda has the potential to be even better than her.
In the midst of one of the worst, and most prolonged, droughts Vermont has seen, Scottie is trying hard to pressure local government to allow the ski resort to expand. A long-lasting lack of snow has made the industry resort to snow-making machines and, although the Chittenden river is running lower than every before, he wants to be able to take water in great quantities.
This is an exploration of what happens when careerism and income clash with the ethically right thing to do - in terms of not only the environment and long-term sustainability, but also truth and integrity. These are conflicts I'm particularly interested in from a professional and an academic perspective, and the descriptions of the increasingly dry bush land was particularly resonant because I read it during Victoria's most severe heat wave, just before our devastating fires, and in the seventh year of severe drought across the country.
I have enjoyed many of Bohjalian's works, particularly Midwives but also The Law of Similars and The Buffalo Soldiers. For some reason, though, Water Witches didn't resonate with me. I'm sure part of that, something of a product of the time and place, was Scottie's careless disregard for the ecology of his town. Mostly, though, I think it's because I didn't find the central struggle, of Scottie weighing expediency with conscious, sufficiently compelling. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if it had been written by an author from whom I had lower expectations, because it's not a badly written or uninteresting book, it just didn't quite achieve the level of excellence I associate with Bohjalian. - Alex
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