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A Novel by Robert Baldwin
Format: 6 X 9 Hardcover, 144 pp.
ISBN: 0-9671851-2-2
Pub Date: October 2002
Price: $20.00
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Robert Baldwin is a writer and outdoorsman who lives with his wife and children in Colorado. THE WATER THIEF, which was a finalist for the Ariadne Fiction Prize, is his first novel. His novella DOOR OF WATER has been described as a "brilliant and tender story" and his co-authored screenplay, DANGEREUX, received an "outstanding achievement" award from the 2001 Telluride Film Festival. His body of work has been compared to Malamud, Hemingway and Rick Bass and his award-winning stories have appeared in many literary journals.
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There are only a few wild places left in the world, and Jake Woods needs them the way the rest of us need oxygen. Always, when he has felt squeezed--when manicured lawns and symmetrical gardens have begun to grate on him and the white parallel lines in parking lots have threatened to drive him out of his mind--he has escaped into the wilderness and regained his composure. So it was no surprise that when his son was old enough, that Jake would want to take the boy along and acquaint him with nature's munificence too. And the boy took to the woods and water and open roof of the sky as if born there. But then nature turned unmerciful--and when Jake returned home, he was alone and as broken as a man can ever be.
THE WATER THIEF begins a year after this tragedy in the wilds of Canada. Jake, who is by trade an engineer--someone who creates systems for overcoming obstacles--has done nothing to get his life back on track. It's not that he's unwilling to take the risk of starting over; it's that he no longer knows how to ask for what he wants. Perhaps what he wants is unattainable; or perhaps it is too deeply entwined with what he suspects are his wife's secrets and what he knows to be his own. The only thing he can think to do is to tie up loose ends at home and return to the back country.
Frank and profound, THE WATER THIEF is the story of one man's journey toward redemption. It is both a riveting adventure and a piercing exposé on spiritual isolation and the one thing with the power to prevail over it: forgiveness. Written in prose that is lyrical and laconic, THE WATER THIEF peels back layer upon layer of raw emotion and exposes the bone that sustains us all.
And…
"Robert Baldwin's tellings are uncut potions brewed from the most indestructible of elements: water, tendon, starlight, fire, and sunrise."
Merrill Gilfillan, author of MAGPIE RISING and GRASSHOPPER FALLS
" In this brief yet epic tale, Baldwin joins that select circle of American writers--think Jim Harrison, Russell Banks, Rick Bass--who have discovered the true poetry of modern American in the realistic novel of the American backcountry. This book gazes deeply into the abyss and scarcely blinks; a rare novel that matters, it seems ancient and grand and touched by myth. "
Greg Rawlings, book reviewer for the Denver Docket
"A compelling book with a plot that's anything but predictable."
Jack Beam, author of GO BLUE
"THE WATER THIEF is the gripping story of a man who returns to the scene of a horrifying accident to face down the dangers of the wild as well as his own demons. Baldwin's taut prose puts us right there with him all the way to the terrifying conclusion."
Eric Torgersen, author of ETHIOPIA and GOOD TRUE STORIES
"Now and then we encounter an author gifted in writing prose as well as plotting, then telling the story. Baldwin is an author of that caliber, making THE WATER THEIF a novel to savor."
Dar Tomlinson, author of BROKEN
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