The Weight of Water
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| The Weight of Water | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Anita Shreve |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
| Publication date | January 1, 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0316789976 |
The Weight of Water is a 1997 bestselling novel by Anita Shreve. Half of the novel is historical fiction that speculates about the true events of the Smuttynose Island murders of 1873.
[edit] Plot summary
In 1873, two women living on the Isles of Shoals, a group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire, were brutally murdered. A third woman, named Maren, survived by cowering in a sea cave until dawn. More than a century later, Jean, a magazine photographer working on a photoessay about the murders, returns to the Isles with her husband, Thomas, and their five-year-old daughter, Billie, aboard a boat skippered by her brother-in-law, Rich, who has brought along his girlfriend, Adaline. As Jean becomes immersed in the details of the 19th-century murders, Thomas and Adaline find themselves drawn together-with potentially ruinous consequences.
The novel is split into two parts: the present day, told from Jean's point of view and in the present tense, and 1873, told in first person from Maren's point of view as a memoir (past tense).
[edit] Adaptation
A film adaptation of the same name, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, was released in 2002. It starred Sean Penn, Catherine McCormack, Elizabeth Hurley and Sarah Polley.
