Minnet Av Vatten
The Memory of Water
written by Emmi Itäranta
www.ink2quill.com

“Minnet Av Vatten” is the debut novel by the Finnish novelist. It has been also translated into English as well as Swedish. It was first published under the name “The Tea master´s Book” (“Teemestarin Kirja” in Finnish). It has won several awards both Finnish and American. and she has released her second book called “Kudottujen Kujien Kaupunki” in Finnish and “The City Of Woven Alleys” in English. This is a really good book.

Minnet av vatten Adlibris webpage

Emmi Itäranta Storytel webpage

“Minnet av vatten” takes place in a not-too-distant future, on hopefully an alternate timeline, where water is scarce, Scandinavia and most of the world is living under drought and the geo-political world as we know it today has changed. Water is in scarce supply and fought over and China runs Europe and the Scandinavian Union. The state of Nya Qian occupies The Scandinavian Union where the protagonist, Noria Kaitio lives with her parents. Her father is what is known as a tea master, or one who tends to the water. In the beginning of the story he takes Noria to `the place that doesn´t exist´, which is a secret water source that he maintains and keeps secret with his wife, Lian, from everyone else. Noria hopes to be a Tea Master one day like her father and so not only keeps the water source secret but learns how to maintain it, keep its levels up and not over exploit the source and run it dry. She also meddles with technology and things from days gone by like CDs and old books to get a better idea of what things were like before. Noria has the very good quality found in so many good heroes. She is curious about the past and the trinkets they left behind.

Her best friend is Sanja Valama and it is through her that we get an idea just how hard life is in this world of drought. Many people are forced to drink polluted, contaminated water and become sick as a result of it. This is a future world were so many people are dehydrated and in poor health. Add to this an army that comes to town with the intention of squeezing any water it can out of the town and you have the desperate conditions in Noria´s world. A Kommandant Taro visits the Kaitios in search of water but finds nothing. When blue circles begin to appear on some people´s doors, disappearances and executions soon follow. Noria´s parents get scared and her mother decides to take a job abroad while the father stays behind with her.

The story takes a turn with the death of Noria´s father and the crisis in her friend Sanja´s family. The Valama family is in dire need of water and Noria decides to help them and reveal her family secret to her best friend.

I loved the world building of the author. A dry world where the centers of power have changed so much is a masterstroke of the imagination. Something, like water, that so important and that we take so much for granted in the western world makes for a perfect center of attention for the story. The people of this story obsess over water, for a very good reason, the same way people today obsess over money and nations obsess over oil, natural gas and mineral resources. But as we all know, water is a far more valuable and important a resource than money or most anything else. Stories like this one really show us just how important some of those things we take for granted are Water, gravity and clean air are at the very top of the list of most important things we need and should treat as sacred.

Stories about water, how it´s managed, the place it takes in society or the lack of it have always attracted my attention. This story gives us a good look at a community dealing with severe water shortages on a constant basis. The fear and desperation in the people is not a good thing to see on a daily basis. Although I´ve heard it said, and I don´t know for sure, that most people in the world live under some kind of water problem, whether it´s a lack of water, polluted water or water theft from a community. So the water problems in Noria´s Scandinavian Union is a very relevant topic to us today.

So, I strongly recommend “The Memory Of Water”. It´s a good read and I would not be surprised to see a mini series of it come out and do well on the screen.

John Ink2Quill

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