The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell

 

The Zook women live on an island on the waters, or swamp as most would call it, in Michigan.  The head of the family is Herself, a woman who those around her fear but come to for healing.  She lives in harmony with the plants and animals of the waters, even the rattlesnakes that are a protected species.  Herself had three daughters.  One is living in California, one is a nurse nearby and the youngest, Rose Thorn, is the town's fascination.  All the men are in love with her.  She has always loved the farmer next to the island but refuses to marry him.  Rose periodically disappears, staying with her sister in California and leaving behind her eleven year old daughter, Dorothy known as Donkey, with Herself.

Men are forbidden on the island.  Herself was married but that was long ago and she doesn't trust men with their guns and their casual destruction of everything around them.  When a bullet hits Herself her thoughts are justified.  Her injury brings all the sisters home and the Zook family secrets start to emerge. 

Bonnie Jo Campbell is known as a master of documenting the lives of those who live close to nature, those who are poor and ignored.  Campbell has the knack of transporting the reader into the world she has created and the characters are drawn so well one feels they just ran into them at the post office yesterday.  There are echoes from Campbell's own life in the novel as she also grew up in Michigan and she also loves mathematics as Donkey does.  The relationships between the sisters and their mother are strong and sustaining.  This book should be a strong contender for literary awards such as the Women's Prize for Literature and the Booker and is recommended for readers of literary fiction.