The weight of water by Anita Shreve

The story is set in 1873 where there are two women who live on the Isles of Shoals. These were a group of Islands which you can find off the coast of New Hampshire. These women were murdered in a very brutal way. There was a third woman who actually survived and was found near a cave in a very distress way.


Then the book jumps a century later to when we get introduced to a character called Jean who works has a photographer and tries to piece together these murders and why it happened. So she and her husband Thomas went back to the Island and also her five year old daughter Billie.. The details of these murders in the 19th century was keeping Jean very immersed and as she discovers more strangly Thomas and Adeline who was girlfriend to her brother in law Rich was drawn together.

The story you can say is divided in two sections the first part is present day and you read about Jeans point of view and it is written in the present tense.

The second part in 1873 and was told in the first person , Maren who was the only survivor of the attempted murder. It is read like a memoir.

It was difficult for me to get into this book but I was very determined to stick at it and once I read the first 40 pages I did get into it and started to enjoy the