Water cover art

Water

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Water

By: John Boyne
Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past.

But scandals follow like hunting dogs. And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?

Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do. Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all.

©2023 John Boyne (P)2023 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Marriage Heartfelt Tear-jerking Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Echo Chamber cover art
So Late in the Day cover art
A Cornish Inheritance cover art
Poppy Day cover art
Aphrodite's Island cover art
The Woman on the Cliff cover art
The Choice cover art
There's Something I Have to Tell You cover art
One Summer cover art
The Mother I Could Have Been cover art
Reluctantly Home cover art
Other People's Marriages cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Inhaled this concise story - it’s brilliant.

Am rubbish at writing book reviews.

Just listen! SO GOOD!

An absolute corker - just wish it was longer!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this so much, well written, paced perfectly, ending rounds off a great narrative. I have no notes for this it’s beautiful and can be read and loved by all.

I think this may be the most perfect book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book from beginning to end. Beautifully written, great characters and a really credible storyline. I’ve loved all of John Boyne’s books.

Amazingly believable characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
To me this is classic literary fiction, a short novel tackling the all-consuming, life-ruining effects of close association with a bad, bad man. Lots to think about, especially three powerful segments of the book. The first book I have read by John Boyne, won't be the last. Narration excellent.

Classic Literary Fiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a beautifully written book tackling a really tragic and complex subject but I would really heartily recommend it. I also have to say that Niamh Cusack as narrator is simply exceptional- I cannot think of another book in which the narrator has done such justice to the story and the main character- bravo !

Superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews