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Waterborne
  • Published: 15 October 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099472186
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $24.99

Waterborne



An epic, Steinbeck era, American novel of vast scope and originality.

Filius Poe, a dam engineer, is grieving the loss of his wife and son. Lew Beck, mean and brutish, is out to avenge his life of deprivation. Lena McCardell, who thought she had exactly what she wanted, is fleeing her husband, hoping for the chance of a fresh start and a brighter future for her son. From various directions and distances, these three lives converge on Boulder City and the Boulder Dam, the most ambitious engineering project of its day and a beacon of hope for an America crippled by the Great Depression. Waterborne is a panorama of human desire and enterprise, a novel about the power of love to engender hope, the forging of friendship and the tragedy of unfulfilled dreams. It marks the arrival of a major new American writer.

  • Published: 15 October 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099472186
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Bruce Murkoff

Bruce Murkoff was born in 1953, spent many years in California, and now lives with his wife, the artist Suzanne Caporael, in Stone Ridge, New York.

Praise for Waterborne

'An engrossing story-Even more lyrical and evocative than Cold Mountain' Washington Post

'Novels with something fresh to say about the American Dream are few. Waterborne is a worthy addition to their number-A glorious achievement' Literary Review

'Has its roots in the tradition of Dreiser, Steinbeck and Hemingway-Admirable' Guardian

'Lavishly detailed-Murkoff is a talented stylist' Scotland on Sunday

'Murkoff has a formidable talent, and his cadenced, masculine style trails behind it echoes of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and Charles Frazier' San Francisco Chronicle