Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Wonderful, 21 Nov 2007
Shreve has such a beautiful way with words and often writes about very haunting and troubling subjects: This book falls exactly into this category. A tale of two women, Maren's story was the one I followed with more interest but Jean's was also compelling and made more so at the end of the book when the full facts are known. The conclusion of each woman's journey wasn't a surprise to me but nevertheless it was enjoyable if not really sad. This was yet another example of Shreve's talented ability to tell a story in an uncluttered yet intense way (my favourite still remains to be Fortune's Rocks). My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Maren after the murders, but otherwise it is very much worth reading.

Weight of Water, 02 Aug 2006
In "The Weight of Water" we are given the story of two women's lives, set many decades apart but linked by the same sense of despair. The historical angle of Maren's story meant that I was fascinated by the chapters describing her life, more so than those in which we learn about Jean. Anita Shreve's vivid descriptions of life in Norway in Maren's time, as well as life facing those who emigrated to the US, brought Maren and her family to life. I found that the contrast between the `modern' and the `old' worked brilliantly, with Jean's more familiar, colloquial style giving the reader a break from the formal prose of Maren.

The story alternates between Maren's account of the murder committed in her time, which she set down in writing and Jean has now uncovered, and Jean's description of her own expedition to the murder site. Both women have problems within their family and the emotional pain suffered by both is palpable. The picture Shreve paints of the island on which the murder takes place in the past, and which Jean now visits to research the history, is truly bleak.

There is no real twist in the tale (it is fairly obvious how Maren's story will end and the events Jean faces are not a surprise either) but this predictability in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As with many of Shreve's novels, it is the quality of the descriptive writing that give this book its value. I recommend it highly.

Moving contemporary story, 16 Jan 2005
This is another Shreve delight. Subtle and moving prose grabs the reader and doesn't let them go until the traumatic and poignant end. I do think, however, that it would have been better just to have the contemporary tale, and leave out the historical parts. I didn't get much out of the story of Maren and was always rushing to get back to Jean. For that reason, I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Worth a read though!

Cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven, 13 Jan 2004
The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island. Told from two perspectives - a photographer investigating the murder, and the century-old diary of the only survivor of the attack - the dual narrative is cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven.
The Historian


Beautifully interwoven but..., 04 Nov 2003
The way in which Anita Shreve has interwoven the present day happenings of Jean, her husband Thomas and their daughter Billie, with those of another century (concerning Maren Huntfedt, her husband John and their respective siblings) is absolutely superb. Despite this, however, I failed to become as involved with the characters as in the author's other books. I was a little more interested in Thomas, having read of him before in another of Anita Shreve's novels, 'The Last Time They Met', which took place after events in 'The Weight of Water'. As always, however, this book was very beautifully and poignantly written, with the tiniest human observations called to mind, making me (whether I liked it or not) acknowledge feeling or thinking those things at least once in my life. This is what makes 'The Weight of Water' worth reading.

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Wonderful, 21 Nov 2007
Shreve has such a beautiful way with words and often writes about very haunting and troubling subjects: This book falls exactly into this category. A tale of two women, Maren's story was the one I followed with more interest but Jean's was also compelling and made more so at the end of the book when the full facts are known. The conclusion of each woman's journey wasn't a surprise to me but nevertheless it was enjoyable if not really sad. This was yet another example of Shreve's talented ability to tell a story in an uncluttered yet intense way (my favourite still remains to be Fortune's Rocks). My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Maren after the murders, but otherwise it is very much worth reading.

Weight of Water, 02 Aug 2006
In "The Weight of Water" we are given the story of two women's lives, set many decades apart but linked by the same sense of despair. The historical angle of Maren's story meant that I was fascinated by the chapters describing her life, more so than those in which we learn about Jean. Anita Shreve's vivid descriptions of life in Norway in Maren's time, as well as life facing those who emigrated to the US, brought Maren and her family to life. I found that the contrast between the `modern' and the `old' worked brilliantly, with Jean's more familiar, colloquial style giving the reader a break from the formal prose of Maren.

The story alternates between Maren's account of the murder committed in her time, which she set down in writing and Jean has now uncovered, and Jean's description of her own expedition to the murder site. Both women have problems within their family and the emotional pain suffered by both is palpable. The picture Shreve paints of the island on which the murder takes place in the past, and which Jean now visits to research the history, is truly bleak.

There is no real twist in the tale (it is fairly obvious how Maren's story will end and the events Jean faces are not a surprise either) but this predictability in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As with many of Shreve's novels, it is the quality of the descriptive writing that give this book its value. I recommend it highly.

Moving contemporary story, 16 Jan 2005
This is another Shreve delight. Subtle and moving prose grabs the reader and doesn't let them go until the traumatic and poignant end. I do think, however, that it would have been better just to have the contemporary tale, and leave out the historical parts. I didn't get much out of the story of Maren and was always rushing to get back to Jean. For that reason, I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Worth a read though!

Cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven, 13 Jan 2004
The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island. Told from two perspectives - a photographer investigating the murder, and the century-old diary of the only survivor of the attack - the dual narrative is cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven.
The Historian


Beautifully interwoven but..., 04 Nov 2003
The way in which Anita Shreve has interwoven the present day happenings of Jean, her husband Thomas and their daughter Billie, with those of another century (concerning Maren Huntfedt, her husband John and their respective siblings) is absolutely superb. Despite this, however, I failed to become as involved with the characters as in the author's other books. I was a little more interested in Thomas, having read of him before in another of Anita Shreve's novels, 'The Last Time They Met', which took place after events in 'The Weight of Water'. As always, however, this book was very beautifully and poignantly written, with the tiniest human observations called to mind, making me (whether I liked it or not) acknowledge feeling or thinking those things at least once in my life. This is what makes 'The Weight of Water' worth reading.

True To Shreve's Style, 23 Sep 2008
With reviews as diverse as the ones for this book, it would be difficult for someone wondering whether to purchase this book to decide if it's a good one or not. It seems that you either like Shreve's work or not, and I do or I wouldn't own or have read all her books. Shreve's writing style is quite fine and I think you have to have read two or three to really appreciate the subtlety and nuances which seem to speak louder than the written word. Her books are not usually gripping or un-put-downable but do have a certain intrigue and sophistication and I found those qualities in this book. The Book Description above gives a synopsis of this story of domestic violence so if you are a Shreve fan and the storyline grabs you then give it a go and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you've not read any Shreve books yet then, in my opinion, her books with more of an attention-grabbing storyline are The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rock and you might be better to start with those to see if you like her style.

Sensitive story that plods along, 21 May 2008
This is my least favourite book in some time. That's not to say it's particularly bad, evidently the other reviewers here enjoyed it greatly, it just didn't grab me in the same way. The structure is interesting and different, but somehow it didn't work for me. Similarly I thought I would be gripped by the story, but I found that it dragged along and was a slow book to read. I was interested enough to want to know what happened to Mary/Maureen, but I was glad to finish it to get onto something else. Nevertheless it (husband abusing his wife) was a very serious topic to tackle, and it is interesting to see how the attitudes differed about this back in the 70's when the action plays out. Perhaps her style is just not for me? It is the first of her books that I have read, though, so I will try another at some point in the future as perhaps this was just not to my tastes.

Another classic read, 09 Aug 2007
This is page turner in every way. A tried and tested tale about domestic violence given a whole new slant thanks to the innovative plot device. Even though it is obvious from the start where the story is going, Shreve's amazing prose style drives you on. Shreve does not take the easy route - sympathies change and preconceptions are challenged. I would have been quite happy for there to be another 200 pages so we could have experienced the trial in more detail but any author who leaves you wanting more is obviously doing something right. A harrowing account of what happens behind too many closed doors.

A touching, moving story, 13 Jul 2005
The way the story was put together with interviews and journal was an interesting way of seeing all sides of the story. I thought that I would get bored with a story of a woman spending all the time in her little cottage on her own, but the pace was kept up and you really feel for her despair.
Definitely recommend it.

Very frightening fits of passion, 21 Nov 2003
As other reviewers have said, the author has written a well-trodden theme in a completely original way, thus avoiding the usual angle taken when writing about domestic violence. Because previous reviewers have outlined the story so well, I will not repeat it. However, the tension created by Anita Shreve in much of the book, makes the reader almost taste the fear and foreboding experienced by a woman in fear for her life at the hands of her husband. Absolutely superb.

With five novels to her credit, including the acclaimed The Weight of Water, Anita Shreve now offers a skilfully crafted exploration of the long reach of tragedy in The Pilot's Wife. News of Jack Lyons's fatal crash sends his wife into shock and emotional numbness:

Kathryn wished she could manage a coma. Instead, it seemed that quite the opposite had happened: She felt herself to be inside of a private weather system, one in which she was continuously tossed and buffeted by bits of news and information, sometimes chilled by thoughts of what lay immediately ahead, thawed by the kindness of others ... frequently drenched by memories that seemed to have no regard for circumstance or place, and then subjected to the nearly intolerable heat of reporters, photographers and curious onlookers. It was a weather system with no logic, she had decided, no pattern, no progression, no form.

The situation becomes even more dire when the plane's black box is recovered, pinning responsibility for the crash on Jack. In an attempt to clear his name, Kathryn searches for any and all clues to the hours before the flight. Yet each discovery forces her to realise that she didn't know her husband of 16 years at all. Shreve's complex and highly convincing treatment of Kathryn's dilemma, coupled with intriguing minor characters and an expertly paced plot, makes The Pilot's Wife really take off. --James Barry

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Wonderful, 21 Nov 2007
Shreve has such a beautiful way with words and often writes about very haunting and troubling subjects: This book falls exactly into this category. A tale of two women, Maren's story was the one I followed with more interest but Jean's was also compelling and made more so at the end of the book when the full facts are known. The conclusion of each woman's journey wasn't a surprise to me but nevertheless it was enjoyable if not really sad. This was yet another example of Shreve's talented ability to tell a story in an uncluttered yet intense way (my favourite still remains to be Fortune's Rocks). My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Maren after the murders, but otherwise it is very much worth reading.

Weight of Water, 02 Aug 2006
In "The Weight of Water" we are given the story of two women's lives, set many decades apart but linked by the same sense of despair. The historical angle of Maren's story meant that I was fascinated by the chapters describing her life, more so than those in which we learn about Jean. Anita Shreve's vivid descriptions of life in Norway in Maren's time, as well as life facing those who emigrated to the US, brought Maren and her family to life. I found that the contrast between the `modern' and the `old' worked brilliantly, with Jean's more familiar, colloquial style giving the reader a break from the formal prose of Maren.

The story alternates between Maren's account of the murder committed in her time, which she set down in writing and Jean has now uncovered, and Jean's description of her own expedition to the murder site. Both women have problems within their family and the emotional pain suffered by both is palpable. The picture Shreve paints of the island on which the murder takes place in the past, and which Jean now visits to research the history, is truly bleak.

There is no real twist in the tale (it is fairly obvious how Maren's story will end and the events Jean faces are not a surprise either) but this predictability in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As with many of Shreve's novels, it is the quality of the descriptive writing that give this book its value. I recommend it highly.

Moving contemporary story, 16 Jan 2005
This is another Shreve delight. Subtle and moving prose grabs the reader and doesn't let them go until the traumatic and poignant end. I do think, however, that it would have been better just to have the contemporary tale, and leave out the historical parts. I didn't get much out of the story of Maren and was always rushing to get back to Jean. For that reason, I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Worth a read though!

Cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven, 13 Jan 2004
The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island. Told from two perspectives - a photographer investigating the murder, and the century-old diary of the only survivor of the attack - the dual narrative is cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven.
The Historian


Beautifully interwoven but..., 04 Nov 2003
The way in which Anita Shreve has interwoven the present day happenings of Jean, her husband Thomas and their daughter Billie, with those of another century (concerning Maren Huntfedt, her husband John and their respective siblings) is absolutely superb. Despite this, however, I failed to become as involved with the characters as in the author's other books. I was a little more interested in Thomas, having read of him before in another of Anita Shreve's novels, 'The Last Time They Met', which took place after events in 'The Weight of Water'. As always, however, this book was very beautifully and poignantly written, with the tiniest human observations called to mind, making me (whether I liked it or not) acknowledge feeling or thinking those things at least once in my life. This is what makes 'The Weight of Water' worth reading.

True To Shreve's Style, 23 Sep 2008
With reviews as diverse as the ones for this book, it would be difficult for someone wondering whether to purchase this book to decide if it's a good one or not. It seems that you either like Shreve's work or not, and I do or I wouldn't own or have read all her books. Shreve's writing style is quite fine and I think you have to have read two or three to really appreciate the subtlety and nuances which seem to speak louder than the written word. Her books are not usually gripping or un-put-downable but do have a certain intrigue and sophistication and I found those qualities in this book. The Book Description above gives a synopsis of this story of domestic violence so if you are a Shreve fan and the storyline grabs you then give it a go and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you've not read any Shreve books yet then, in my opinion, her books with more of an attention-grabbing storyline are The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rock and you might be better to start with those to see if you like her style.

Sensitive story that plods along, 21 May 2008
This is my least favourite book in some time. That's not to say it's particularly bad, evidently the other reviewers here enjoyed it greatly, it just didn't grab me in the same way. The structure is interesting and different, but somehow it didn't work for me. Similarly I thought I would be gripped by the story, but I found that it dragged along and was a slow book to read. I was interested enough to want to know what happened to Mary/Maureen, but I was glad to finish it to get onto something else. Nevertheless it (husband abusing his wife) was a very serious topic to tackle, and it is interesting to see how the attitudes differed about this back in the 70's when the action plays out. Perhaps her style is just not for me? It is the first of her books that I have read, though, so I will try another at some point in the future as perhaps this was just not to my tastes.

Another classic read, 09 Aug 2007
This is page turner in every way. A tried and tested tale about domestic violence given a whole new slant thanks to the innovative plot device. Even though it is obvious from the start where the story is going, Shreve's amazing prose style drives you on. Shreve does not take the easy route - sympathies change and preconceptions are challenged. I would have been quite happy for there to be another 200 pages so we could have experienced the trial in more detail but any author who leaves you wanting more is obviously doing something right. A harrowing account of what happens behind too many closed doors.

A touching, moving story, 13 Jul 2005
The way the story was put together with interviews and journal was an interesting way of seeing all sides of the story. I thought that I would get bored with a story of a woman spending all the time in her little cottage on her own, but the pace was kept up and you really feel for her despair.
Definitely recommend it.

Very frightening fits of passion, 21 Nov 2003
As other reviewers have said, the author has written a well-trodden theme in a completely original way, thus avoiding the usual angle taken when writing about domestic violence. Because previous reviewers have outlined the story so well, I will not repeat it. However, the tension created by Anita Shreve in much of the book, makes the reader almost taste the fear and foreboding experienced by a woman in fear for her life at the hands of her husband. Absolutely superb.

enjoyable read, 27 May 2008
A beautifully written novel, the discovery of another life for Captain Jack Lyons was not entirely a shock as I had read the summary and critiques at the back of the book before hand. However, the way in which Kathryn was portrayed I wanted to turn the page and find out they had the wrong man and her life would be back to normal. I thought the author had a beautiful grasp of language and her discription of the emotions of the characters. An enjoyable read and I am sure I will sample some of her other work.

How Well Do You Know Your Spouse?, 04 Jan 2008
The Pilot's Wife looks at that common subject of modern fiction, alienation that separates nonreligious from one another. Of course, many people feel like they are married to (or living with) a soul mate who is closely bonded into an understanding symbiosis of two. About half the time, someone must be wrong in that belief because about half of all marriages (and more than that of live-in relationships) hit the rocks.

Anita Shreve chooses an unusual way to display the reality of alienation, by having one spouse die while the other is presented with a mystery about what the other person was thinking and doing. Do spouses keep secrets from one another? Sure. In this case, the secrets undermine the sense of security that heroine Kathryn Lyons used to have in her marriage.

The story opens with the kind of situation that Stephen King so likes to present, Kathryn is awakened by knocking on the door in the middle of the night while her husband is away flying commercially for a major airline. She reluctantly opens the door to be greeted by Robert Hart, from her husband's union, to tell her husband's plane has been lost. Within seconds, she is in the middle of a public relations maelstrom as the media begin their feeding frenzy to show the public horror-stricken grief. Kathryn has to remain strong; she still has a daughter at home to protect.

As the nightmare becomes increasingly real, Ms. Shreve drops other nasty surprises into Kathryn's lap until she's so weighed down by the weight of adversity that she can barely move. Each time she thinks it is as bad as it can get, it gets worse.

The plot in this story is quite strong, giving us a chance to get to know who Kathryn is. From that point of view, the book is very successful. Some will find the plot a little too fanciful to be credible. But I'm sure stranger things have happened.

Ultimately, the book's weakness is that too much is predictable. A little more suspense would have been good. Try to avoid reading spoilers about the plot. They will reduce your pleasure in the book quite a lot.

Those who like sensitive people will be pleased to see that Kathryn, her grandmother, and Robert Hart display that fine quality.

I liked the reading by Mary Peiffer better than the book. I recommend you find this recording by Books on Tape if you can.


Not the best Shreve book I have read...... , 23 Oct 2007
Kathryn gets a knock at the door in the middle of the night and her life begins to unravel. Her husband has been killed in a mid-air explosion en route to US from London. She and her teenage daughter are both distraught and are comforted by Robert, sent by the airline, and Kathryn's grandmother Julia. It soon becomes clear that her "good marriage" may not have been all she thought. She travels to London to try to find out the truth behind her husband's double life. Meanwhile the press are suggesting suicide by Jack (and at the same time killing a hundred other people) caused by a bomb brought on the plane by him.

This is not the best Shreve book I have read. The prose is lovely and the emotions of Kathryn and Mattie are well handled and believable and the character of Julia is strong. Muire is much less real and the plot all a bit contrived......

The ending is ambivalent which suits the tone of the book.



Very absorbing, 25 Aug 2007
This was my introduction to Anita Shreve's books. I certainly loved it and went on to buy others. This is the gripping story of that infamous "knock at the door" and what happens next, after Kathryn, Jack's devoted wife, opens it. Could the unthinkable have happened? Her life changes dramatically and everything she has ever believed in starts changing shape. Kathryn starts digging for answers. It's an emotional roller coaster all the way through.
The plot is masterful and absorbing, the emotions rendered vividly. An entertaining book indeed, with a truly unexpected end.

A truly Awful book, 04 Aug 2007
I picked up this novel to take with me on holiday- I had heard of Anita Shreve as a writer of some substance and skill and thought I ought to acquaint myself. However, even with the benefit of holiday indulgence I'm hard-pressed to find much positive to say about it.
The eponymous Pilot's Wife discovers that her husband's 'plane has crashed into the sea off Ireland, and gradually she discovers his double life- I say no more, in case you are still tempted to read the book.
Fully two thirds of the novel are taken up with a maundering account of every little change in the central character's emotional state which becomes far too grating and irritating before we are offered any more of the all-too-predictable plot. If you want to wallow in this much unrestrained grief then buy a counsellor's guidebook.
I don't buy into the- frankly absurd- terrorist scenario, which seems both trite and contrived.
On the plus side, the New England setting is atmospheric and well-described, but that's not enough to hold the attention.
Sorry folks, this one, despite the reviews, is a big fat dud.

Hester Prynne never had it so good! The year is 1899, and Olympia Biddeford, the headstrong daughter of a Boston Brahmin family, has decided to test the limits of her cloistered world. Spending the summer at her father's New Hampshire estate, the teenage heroine of Fortune's Rocks is entranced with the visiting salon of artists, writers and lawyers. She's especially captivated, however, by John Haskell, a charismatic physician who ministers to the blue-collar community in the nearby mill towns. This middle-aged Good Samaritan hires Olympia to assist him as a nurse and their collaboration soon evolves into a fiery love affair. Alas, it's only a matter of weeks before this passionate exercise in managed care is exposed--with disastrous consequences for the young, impregnated heroine. Even her adoring father now considers her "an over-plump, 16-year-old girl whose judgement can no longer be trusted" and insists that she break off her relationship:

"There is nothing more to be said on this subject", he says. She bites her lip to keep from crying out further. She holds the arms of her chair so tightly she later will have cramps in her fingers. She will refuse to obey him, she thinks. She will accept his implied challenge and set off on her own. But in the next moment, she asks herself: How will she be able to do that?

Without her father's support, she cannot hope to survive. And if she herself does not survive, then a child cannot live."

In the end, Anita Shreve's seventh novel is a polished, supremely entertaining variation on Wuthering Heights, with Olympia and Haskell sitting in for Catherine and Heathcliff. The author did some meticulous research for her New England background, which gives this study of one particular wayward woman some extra historical heft. Some readers may find the plot twists a bit pat. And despite Olympia's efforts to be an independent woman, she overcomes her trials largely as a result of her family's wealth and station, which takes the edge off Shreve's feminist message. Still, Fortune's Rocks is a romance in the classic sense of the word and should be enjoyed as such, unless the reader is absolutely allergic to happy endings. --Ted Leventhal

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Wonderful, 21 Nov 2007
Shreve has such a beautiful way with words and often writes about very haunting and troubling subjects: This book falls exactly into this category. A tale of two women, Maren's story was the one I followed with more interest but Jean's was also compelling and made more so at the end of the book when the full facts are known. The conclusion of each woman's journey wasn't a surprise to me but nevertheless it was enjoyable if not really sad. This was yet another example of Shreve's talented ability to tell a story in an uncluttered yet intense way (my favourite still remains to be Fortune's Rocks). My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Maren after the murders, but otherwise it is very much worth reading.

Weight of Water, 02 Aug 2006
In "The Weight of Water" we are given the story of two women's lives, set many decades apart but linked by the same sense of despair. The historical angle of Maren's story meant that I was fascinated by the chapters describing her life, more so than those in which we learn about Jean. Anita Shreve's vivid descriptions of life in Norway in Maren's time, as well as life facing those who emigrated to the US, brought Maren and her family to life. I found that the contrast between the `modern' and the `old' worked brilliantly, with Jean's more familiar, colloquial style giving the reader a break from the formal prose of Maren.

The story alternates between Maren's account of the murder committed in her time, which she set down in writing and Jean has now uncovered, and Jean's description of her own expedition to the murder site. Both women have problems within their family and the emotional pain suffered by both is palpable. The picture Shreve paints of the island on which the murder takes place in the past, and which Jean now visits to research the history, is truly bleak.

There is no real twist in the tale (it is fairly obvious how Maren's story will end and the events Jean faces are not a surprise either) but this predictability in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As with many of Shreve's novels, it is the quality of the descriptive writing that give this book its value. I recommend it highly.

Moving contemporary story, 16 Jan 2005
This is another Shreve delight. Subtle and moving prose grabs the reader and doesn't let them go until the traumatic and poignant end. I do think, however, that it would have been better just to have the contemporary tale, and leave out the historical parts. I didn't get much out of the story of Maren and was always rushing to get back to Jean. For that reason, I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Worth a read though!

Cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven, 13 Jan 2004
The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island. Told from two perspectives - a photographer investigating the murder, and the century-old diary of the only survivor of the attack - the dual narrative is cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven.
The Historian


Beautifully interwoven but..., 04 Nov 2003
The way in which Anita Shreve has interwoven the present day happenings of Jean, her husband Thomas and their daughter Billie, with those of another century (concerning Maren Huntfedt, her husband John and their respective siblings) is absolutely superb. Despite this, however, I failed to become as involved with the characters as in the author's other books. I was a little more interested in Thomas, having read of him before in another of Anita Shreve's novels, 'The Last Time They Met', which took place after events in 'The Weight of Water'. As always, however, this book was very beautifully and poignantly written, with the tiniest human observations called to mind, making me (whether I liked it or not) acknowledge feeling or thinking those things at least once in my life. This is what makes 'The Weight of Water' worth reading.

True To Shreve's Style, 23 Sep 2008
With reviews as diverse as the ones for this book, it would be difficult for someone wondering whether to purchase this book to decide if it's a good one or not. It seems that you either like Shreve's work or not, and I do or I wouldn't own or have read all her books. Shreve's writing style is quite fine and I think you have to have read two or three to really appreciate the subtlety and nuances which seem to speak louder than the written word. Her books are not usually gripping or un-put-downable but do have a certain intrigue and sophistication and I found those qualities in this book. The Book Description above gives a synopsis of this story of domestic violence so if you are a Shreve fan and the storyline grabs you then give it a go and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you've not read any Shreve books yet then, in my opinion, her books with more of an attention-grabbing storyline are The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rock and you might be better to start with those to see if you like her style.

Sensitive story that plods along, 21 May 2008
This is my least favourite book in some time. That's not to say it's particularly bad, evidently the other reviewers here enjoyed it greatly, it just didn't grab me in the same way. The structure is interesting and different, but somehow it didn't work for me. Similarly I thought I would be gripped by the story, but I found that it dragged along and was a slow book to read. I was interested enough to want to know what happened to Mary/Maureen, but I was glad to finish it to get onto something else. Nevertheless it (husband abusing his wife) was a very serious topic to tackle, and it is interesting to see how the attitudes differed about this back in the 70's when the action plays out. Perhaps her style is just not for me? It is the first of her books that I have read, though, so I will try another at some point in the future as perhaps this was just not to my tastes.

Another classic read, 09 Aug 2007
This is page turner in every way. A tried and tested tale about domestic violence given a whole new slant thanks to the innovative plot device. Even though it is obvious from the start where the story is going, Shreve's amazing prose style drives you on. Shreve does not take the easy route - sympathies change and preconceptions are challenged. I would have been quite happy for there to be another 200 pages so we could have experienced the trial in more detail but any author who leaves you wanting more is obviously doing something right. A harrowing account of what happens behind too many closed doors.

A touching, moving story, 13 Jul 2005
The way the story was put together with interviews and journal was an interesting way of seeing all sides of the story. I thought that I would get bored with a story of a woman spending all the time in her little cottage on her own, but the pace was kept up and you really feel for her despair.
Definitely recommend it.

Very frightening fits of passion, 21 Nov 2003
As other reviewers have said, the author has written a well-trodden theme in a completely original way, thus avoiding the usual angle taken when writing about domestic violence. Because previous reviewers have outlined the story so well, I will not repeat it. However, the tension created by Anita Shreve in much of the book, makes the reader almost taste the fear and foreboding experienced by a woman in fear for her life at the hands of her husband. Absolutely superb.

enjoyable read, 27 May 2008
A beautifully written novel, the discovery of another life for Captain Jack Lyons was not entirely a shock as I had read the summary and critiques at the back of the book before hand. However, the way in which Kathryn was portrayed I wanted to turn the page and find out they had the wrong man and her life would be back to normal. I thought the author had a beautiful grasp of language and her discription of the emotions of the characters. An enjoyable read and I am sure I will sample some of her other work.

How Well Do You Know Your Spouse?, 04 Jan 2008
The Pilot's Wife looks at that common subject of modern fiction, alienation that separates nonreligious from one another. Of course, many people feel like they are married to (or living with) a soul mate who is closely bonded into an understanding symbiosis of two. About half the time, someone must be wrong in that belief because about half of all marriages (and more than that of live-in relationships) hit the rocks.

Anita Shreve chooses an unusual way to display the reality of alienation, by having one spouse die while the other is presented with a mystery about what the other person was thinking and doing. Do spouses keep secrets from one another? Sure. In this case, the secrets undermine the sense of security that heroine Kathryn Lyons used to have in her marriage.

The story opens with the kind of situation that Stephen King so likes to present, Kathryn is awakened by knocking on the door in the middle of the night while her husband is away flying commercially for a major airline. She reluctantly opens the door to be greeted by Robert Hart, from her husband's union, to tell her husband's plane has been lost. Within seconds, she is in the middle of a public relations maelstrom as the media begin their feeding frenzy to show the public horror-stricken grief. Kathryn has to remain strong; she still has a daughter at home to protect.

As the nightmare becomes increasingly real, Ms. Shreve drops other nasty surprises into Kathryn's lap until she's so weighed down by the weight of adversity that she can barely move. Each time she thinks it is as bad as it can get, it gets worse.

The plot in this story is quite strong, giving us a chance to get to know who Kathryn is. From that point of view, the book is very successful. Some will find the plot a little too fanciful to be credible. But I'm sure stranger things have happened.

Ultimately, the book's weakness is that too much is predictable. A little more suspense would have been good. Try to avoid reading spoilers about the plot. They will reduce your pleasure in the book quite a lot.

Those who like sensitive people will be pleased to see that Kathryn, her grandmother, and Robert Hart display that fine quality.

I liked the reading by Mary Peiffer better than the book. I recommend you find this recording by Books on Tape if you can.


Not the best Shreve book I have read...... , 23 Oct 2007
Kathryn gets a knock at the door in the middle of the night and her life begins to unravel. Her husband has been killed in a mid-air explosion en route to US from London. She and her teenage daughter are both distraught and are comforted by Robert, sent by the airline, and Kathryn's grandmother Julia. It soon becomes clear that her "good marriage" may not have been all she thought. She travels to London to try to find out the truth behind her husband's double life. Meanwhile the press are suggesting suicide by Jack (and at the same time killing a hundred other people) caused by a bomb brought on the plane by him.

This is not the best Shreve book I have read. The prose is lovely and the emotions of Kathryn and Mattie are well handled and believable and the character of Julia is strong. Muire is much less real and the plot all a bit contrived......

The ending is ambivalent which suits the tone of the book.



Very absorbing, 25 Aug 2007
This was my introduction to Anita Shreve's books. I certainly loved it and went on to buy others. This is the gripping story of that infamous "knock at the door" and what happens next, after Kathryn, Jack's devoted wife, opens it. Could the unthinkable have happened? Her life changes dramatically and everything she has ever believed in starts changing shape. Kathryn starts digging for answers. It's an emotional roller coaster all the way through.
The plot is masterful and absorbing, the emotions rendered vividly. An entertaining book indeed, with a truly unexpected end.

A truly Awful book, 04 Aug 2007
I picked up this novel to take with me on holiday- I had heard of Anita Shreve as a writer of some substance and skill and thought I ought to acquaint myself. However, even with the benefit of holiday indulgence I'm hard-pressed to find much positive to say about it.
The eponymous Pilot's Wife discovers that her husband's 'plane has crashed into the sea off Ireland, and gradually she discovers his double life- I say no more, in case you are still tempted to read the book.
Fully two thirds of the novel are taken up with a maundering account of every little change in the central character's emotional state which becomes far too grating and irritating before we are offered any more of the all-too-predictable plot. If you want to wallow in this much unrestrained grief then buy a counsellor's guidebook.
I don't buy into the- frankly absurd- terrorist scenario, which seems both trite and contrived.
On the plus side, the New England setting is atmospheric and well-described, but that's not enough to hold the attention.
Sorry folks, this one, despite the reviews, is a big fat dud.


Disappointing, 27 Jun 2008
I am upset! I have found an Anita Shreve book that I don't like! And I don't like it to such an extent that I've given up after 27 pages!

I am usually one of those people who sticks with a book throughout - but life's too short, I'm afraid. My disappointment is much worse because I've loved everything else Anita Shreve has ever written: 'The Weight of Water' is an incredible book that I've passed on to several friends.

The problem with 'Fortune's Rocks' is that it is written in the style used by authors from another century. I presume this is a deliberate ploy to maintain the reader's awareness of the late-nineteenth century setting, but I just found it incredibly irritating and distracting. If I wanted to read stiff English prose and dialogue, I would read 'What Katy Did' again (and don't get me wrong - I loved that book as a child!)

I also got frustrated with the syntax - one sentence (page 21, pp1, for anyone who can be bothered to look!) is eight lines long, and contains five commas, and two hyphens! I'm sorry if this sounds anal but, as a writing student myself, I find this sort of thing distracting and sloppy.

I hate criticizing Anita Shreve, believe me! I am about to start writing my own novel and Ms Shreve is a huge influence on my writing style. All I can think is that this book is a hiccup in her, otherwise excellent, collection of works.


Not great, but not that bad either, 26 Feb 2007
I think I'm one of the ones in the minority here. I had a difficult time getting into the book at first -- perhaps if Olympia had been a couple of years older at least. A 40+ year old man and a 15 year old girl. Ew. That said, I just didn't see any real chemistry between the two, outside of the sexual attraction for this life long supposed great love.

I almost gave up when they started writing those long letters to each other, then it picked up around page 200 into her exile and attempt to regain her son.

The writing style was a little different than most I've seen, an unusual tense to take, but the prose was pleasant and lyrical. Nothing that had me so taken with the book that I lost sleep over, but I didn't end up throwing it against the wall either.



One of my favourite books ever!, 15 Dec 2005
This was the first Anita Shreve book that I read and have since read all the others and bought Fortune's Rocks for all of my friends. It's fantastic in every way - from the wonderfully descriptive style of her writing to the great characters and content, the book contains real passion and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it - as did all my friends. Took me a little while to get into it, but was really glad that I did as I got completely absorbed and was sad to finish it!

I couldn't put it down, 07 Jun 2005
I found the book "Fortunes Rock" completely absorbing... once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I read it all through math, social studies, English and Spanish! Olympia's and Haskell's love for each other is captivating. It's the kind of love everyone longs for. Though society and age threatens to keep them apart they will do anything for the love they have... all this mixed in with a girls coming of age and a mothers fight for her son....its a must read! I am now working my way through all of Anita Shreve's books.

Absolute Masterpiece, 09 Jun 2004
This book is amazing. The whole story of poor Olympia leaves you gripped to this book and never lets you put it down. The minute you start reading you escape into her world.
Highly recommended to anyone.

Anita Shreve's new novel Sea Glass represents a remarkable advance. She previously caught the attention of many readers with Fortune's Rocks and The Pilot's Wife, beautifully crafted novels with rich and subtly observed characterisation. But however impressive those books were, Sea Glass has the same adroit creation of character, but the prose is even more rich and allusive. This is a story of the human heart, of the demands of the past, and of the necessity for pragmatism in human relationships. It's 1929, and Honora Beecher and her husband Sexton are enjoying their new marriage in a cottage on the coast of New Hampshire. Honora is renovating the rundown property and searching for pieces of coloured glass washed up on the beach. Sexton attempts to buy the house they both adore, but with disastrous results: like many other Americans, he is a victim of the stock market crash and is financially wiped out. He is forced to work in a nearby mill, where a labour conflict is having violent results. The couple's struggle to maintain their marriage in the face of dangerous forces that threaten to overwhelm them is vividly and poignantly told.

Shreve has written nine novels and throughout her work she has painstakingly honed her storytelling skills with elegance and intelligence. She is particularly skilful at depicting interlocking lives, as in Sea Glass, and adroitly invests each with its own portion of love and tragedy. If you want to be one of the "early adopters" of Shreve's cherishable novels, now is the time:

In the wet sand by her foot, a bit of colour catches her eye. The glass is green pale and cloudy, the colour of lime juice that has been squeezed into a glass. She brushes the sand off and presses the sea glass into her palm, keeping it for luck.

--Barry Forshaw

Good, but in a subtle way, 31 Oct 2008
This is the first novel by Shreve that I have read. Perhaps because I came to it with no expectations in regard to her writing style, I enjoyed it more than the previous reviewer to me. However, I can also see their point.

TESTIMONY is the story of a sex tape scandal at a boarding school in a relatively small community in Vermont. The novel tells of how this tape and the contents on it has repercussions, not just for those who featured in it, but also for others. Shreve splits the narrative between a few different characters who became involved in the event and its aftermath, offering the reader different viewpionts on the same event. And in some ways, this works well. But there are a few letdowns. As the other reviewer stated, Shreve tends to repeat various views again and again, rather than developing them further. However, I think the fact that you are never really given a 'proper' reason for the tape, actually adds something to what is behind this novel - that one stupid moment in a person's life can change the path they are to take and have consequences which they would never have imagined.

TESTIMONY is not the sort of book which grips you from the first page and keeps you in its thrall - I must admit that I had to persevere with it as it is not a page turner in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat, desperately wanting to know what will happen next. This book, although quite good, is more subtle than that.

Good... but not outstanding, 17 Oct 2008
I am quite a fan of Anita Shreve and I liked the idea of approaching the particular incident which the story focuses on from all sorts of different viewpoints. However, I think as the plot unfolds, too many already familiar views get churned out over and over again. We've already understood that Sienna is less than innocent, we know about Mike's feelings etc. The other thing I wasn't so keen on is a certain laziness in the explanation of it all - nobody has really got an insight or a particular angle. And one doesn't really want to follow the author who seems to blame the poor mother for ruining her eighteen-year old son's life by having an affair. So all in all I'd say whilst it's a decent enough read, it left me somewhat disappointed.

Captivating - again, 02 Nov 2008
yet again Shreve has produced a truly captivating novel - I find myself taking weeks to read most books as I'm so busy and yet somoehow this one was devoured in three days. This is largely due to the characterisation which is compelling rather than the storyline, which really plays second fiddle. The descriptions and the characters are engaging and captivating and after only a few pages you feel compelled to read on.

Although other Shreve fans have pointed out that the cottage features in other AS novels I must admit that for me each novel is so different that I've never even clocked this - this is NOT more of the same, it is a beautifully crafted story that whether you've read Shreve before or not, you will enjoy if you like to get to know individual characters and understand their story as well as appreciating the novel as a whole.

I'd recommend it highly - though for anyone starting out on Anita Shreve and looking for her best I'd suggest Fortunes Rocks, The Pilots Wife or Eden Close.



Absorbing, 05 Aug 2008
Bodysurfing tells the story of Sydney Sklar who at 29 has been once divorced & once widowed. Not quite sure where her life is heading after her recent bereavement she decides to take up a position tutoring 18 year old Julie at the family's beach house on the New Hampshire coast. When Julie's thirty something brothers come to visit for the weekend the story unfolds so that things can never go back to the way they were.

The setting is amazing. The language is beautifully descriptive. The sun, the sea the sand, the beach house are all described perfectly so you can feel the sand underfoot, hear the waves crashing & smell the salty water. However the book shows that no matter how beautiful the surroundings we cannot escape all those issues that lie beneath the surface. These are the issues that eventually catch up with all of us & can steal the beauty away.

This book is not for you if you like a lot of action. However it is absorbing & very easy to read. It is simply a family story beautifully told.

This is the first book I read by Anita Shreve. I cannot wait to start another.


An engrossing read, 16 Jul 2008
After having been disappointed with A Wedding in December I approached this with a little caution. However I was delighted to find that with this novel Anita Shreve has returned to the kind of writing which had made me such a fan in the past. This is a novel about a young woman who is hired to tutor the teenage daughter of a wealthy couple at their summer home. Their two sons - much older than their "slow" sister are in their thirties, arrive and suddenly the dynamics of the house change, as they each vie for her attention.
I was delighted to find that much of this novel is set in the beach house which appears in Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's wife, and Sea Glass, it's a setting I feel I know so well that it's like revisiting a place you've spent some special times in.
There are some great twists and turns as the novel progresses, which makes it a pretty hard to put down book.

Idea Summer Read, 30 Jun 2008
I find with Anita Shreve books that I have to persist through the first couple of chapter and get to know the characters but then I am hooked and that was certainly the case with Body Surfing which was a page turner. You can imagine the house on the beach, feel the heat...and the tension (sexual and otherwise!). This book is very sad in parts and anyone who has had a broken heart will relate to the main character. But it also shows how people change and with time things move on and a new chapter unfolds. Take this on holiday with you and enjoy.

New discovery..., 22 May 2008
Having just 'discovered' Anita Shreve I was pleasantly surprised by this story. It was very easy to read and the characters were realistic enough to get to 'know' as the tale unfolded (you can't help but have a soft spot for Mr Edwards).
Sydney lives in with the Edwards family to tutor their youngest daughter. She is comfortable with her existance there and finds peace living by the sea after first, a divorce, and then after becomming a widow at a young age. Enter the Edwards sons who, unbeknown to Sydney, have an undercurrent of unresolved issues, and Sydney finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance.
This is an easy read and the story flows well. I will certainly look out for other stories from her.

Wonderful, 21 Nov 2007
Shreve has such a beautiful way with words and often writes about very haunting and troubling subjects: This book falls exactly into this category. A tale of two women, Maren's story was the one I followed with more interest but Jean's was also compelling and made more so at the end of the book when the full facts are known. The conclusion of each woman's journey wasn't a surprise to me but nevertheless it was enjoyable if not really sad. This was yet another example of Shreve's talented ability to tell a story in an uncluttered yet intense way (my favourite still remains to be Fortune's Rocks). My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Maren after the murders, but otherwise it is very much worth reading.

Weight of Water, 02 Aug 2006
In "The Weight of Water" we are given the story of two women's lives, set many decades apart but linked by the same sense of despair. The historical angle of Maren's story meant that I was fascinated by the chapters describing her life, more so than those in which we learn about Jean. Anita Shreve's vivid descriptions of life in Norway in Maren's time, as well as life facing those who emigrated to the US, brought Maren and her family to life. I found that the contrast between the `modern' and the `old' worked brilliantly, with Jean's more familiar, colloquial style giving the reader a break from the formal prose of Maren.

The story alternates between Maren's account of the murder committed in her time, which she set down in writing and Jean has now uncovered, and Jean's description of her own expedition to the murder site. Both women have problems within their family and the emotional pain suffered by both is palpable. The picture Shreve paints of the island on which the murder takes place in the past, and which Jean now visits to research the history, is truly bleak.

There is no real twist in the tale (it is fairly obvious how Maren's story will end and the events Jean faces are not a surprise either) but this predictability in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. As with many of Shreve's novels, it is the quality of the descriptive writing that give this book its value. I recommend it highly.

Moving contemporary story, 16 Jan 2005
This is another Shreve delight. Subtle and moving prose grabs the reader and doesn't let them go until the traumatic and poignant end. I do think, however, that it would have been better just to have the contemporary tale, and leave out the historical parts. I didn't get much out of the story of Maren and was always rushing to get back to Jean. For that reason, I give it 4 stars instead of 5. Worth a read though!

Cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven, 13 Jan 2004
The Weight of Water is beautifully written but leaves many frustrating questions unanswered. A contemporary story about two couples and a child in a sailboat off the coast of New Hampshire is intertwined with the tale of a 19th century double murder which took place on a nearby island. Told from two perspectives - a photographer investigating the murder, and the century-old diary of the only survivor of the attack - the dual narrative is cleverly plotted but sometimes clumsily interwoven.
The Historian


Beautifully interwoven but..., 04 Nov 2003
The way in which Anita Shreve has interwoven the present day happenings of Jean, her husband Thomas and their daughter Billie, with those of another century (concerning Maren Huntfedt, her husband John and their respective siblings) is absolutely superb. Despite this, however, I failed to become as involved with the characters as in the author's other books. I was a little more interested in Thomas, having read of him before in another of Anita Shreve's novels, 'The Last Time They Met', which took place after events in 'The Weight of Water'. As always, however, this book was very beautifully and poignantly written, with the tiniest human observations called to mind, making me (whether I liked it or not) acknowledge feeling or thinking those things at least once in my life. This is what makes 'The Weight of Water' worth reading.

True To Shreve's Style, 23 Sep 2008
With reviews as diverse as the ones for this book, it would be difficult for someone wondering whether to purchase this book to decide if it's a good one or not. It seems that you either like Shreve's work or not, and I do or I wouldn't own or have read all her books. Shreve's writing style is quite fine and I think you have to have read two or three to really appreciate the subtlety and nuances which seem to speak louder than the written word. Her books are not usually gripping or un-put-downable but do have a certain intrigue and sophistication and I found those qualities in this book. The Book Description above gives a synopsis of this story of domestic violence so if you are a Shreve fan and the storyline grabs you then give it a go and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. If you've not read any Shreve books yet then, in my opinion, her books with more of an attention-grabbing storyline are The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rock and you might be better to start with those to see if you like her style.

Sensitive story that plods along, 2