Overview

Who decides what is right?  How do we judge our actions? And how do we live with ourselves when things go wrong?  Following his father's death, troubled idealist Nick abandons his safe London life for a remote desert village in Africa, lending his engineering skills to build a children’s hospital. Adrift from the world he knows, dangerous currents soon pull him in: a simmering family conflict, hidden corruption and violence, a killing drought, attraction to his host's lonely wife. But when he realizes a water well could offer a way out for the village and redeem his guilty conscience, he takes matters into his own hands. It’s a decision that changes everything – for him, and for everyone he loves.

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9781786073945

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Reviews

`Claire Hajaj follows her Middle Eastern-set debut, Ishmael's Oranges, with the engrossing story of Nick, an architect who, after the sudden death of his father, leaves his fiancee in London to help build a children's hospital in an unspecified village in the Sahara...inspired by the dilemmas she faced as an aid worker for the UN...it engages as a parable of a Westerner who, trying to do the right thing, finds that perhaps there is no right thing to be done.' * <i>Daily Mail</i> * `Claire Hajaj writes with compassion and insight and her characters are rounded and believable... The Water Thief amply fulfils the promise of her debut novel and confirms that here is a writer who can invoke passion and intellect with equal and satisfying facility.' * <i>New Internationalist</i> * `I finished The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It's the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard to make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.' * Emma Sky, author of <i>The Unravelling</i> * `A deceptively simple story that addresses many of the problems facing western African nations...drought, corruption, politics, questionable charitable interventions...and wraps it all in a very human story of love and loss.' * <i>Bookbag</i> * `An unpredictable and compelling work that will generate many conversations.' * <i>Library Journal</i> * `This book completely tore my heart open and made me take a hard look at my own life... The characters in this book will long live in my heart and memory. This has to be one of the most thought-provoking, soul searching books I've ever read...exquisitely written, intense and profound.' * <i>Marjorie's World of Books</i> * `Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.' * Katharina Wantoch, <i>emotion</i> * `A profound Africa adventure.' * <i>MYWAY</i> * `The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj improves the world.' * <i>Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten</i> *

'I finished the The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It's the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.' * Emma Sky, author of <i>The Unravelling</i> * 'Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.' * Katharina Wantoch, <i>emotion</i> * 'A profound Africa adventure.' * <i>MYWAY</i> * 'The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj improves the world.' * <i>Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten</i> *

'I finished the The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It's the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard to make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.' * Emma Sky, author of <i>The Unravelling</i> * 'Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.' * Katharina Wantoch, <i>emotion</i> * 'A profound Africa adventure.' * <i>MYWAY</i> * 'The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj improves the world.' * <i>Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten</i> *

'Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.' * Katharina Wantoch, <i>emotion</i> * 'A profound Africa adventure' * <i>MYWAY</i> * 'Improves the world: The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj...' * <i>Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten</i> *

`Hajaj offers a...hopeful vision of how people from different worlds can find common ground.' * <i>Jewish Chronicle</i> * `Claire Hajaj follows her Middle Eastern-set debut, Ishmael's Oranges, with the engrossing story of Nick, an architect who, after the sudden death of his father, leaves his fiancee in London to help build a children's hospital in an unspecified village in the Sahara...inspired by the dilemmas she faced as an aid worker for the UN...it engages as a parable of a Westerner who, trying to do the right thing, finds that perhaps there is no right thing to be done.' * <i>Daily Mail</i> * `Claire Hajaj writes with compassion and insight and her characters are rounded and believable... The Water Thief amply fulfils the promise of her debut novel and confirms that here is a writer who can invoke passion and intellect with equal and satisfying facility.' * <i>New Internationalist</i> * `I finished The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It's the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard to make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.' * Emma Sky, author of <i>The Unravelling</i> * `A deceptively simple story that addresses many of the problems facing western African nations...drought, corruption, politics, questionable charitable interventions...and wraps it all in a very human story of love and loss.' * <i>Bookbag</i> * `An unpredictable and compelling work that will generate many conversations.' * <i>Library Journal</i> * `This book completely tore my heart open and made me take a hard look at my own life... The characters in this book will long live in my heart and memory. This has to be one of the most thought-provoking, soul searching books I've ever read...exquisitely written, intense and profound.' * <i>Marjorie's World of Books</i> * `Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.' * Katharina Wantoch, <i>emotion</i> * `A profound Africa adventure.' * <i>MYWAY</i> * `The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj improves the world.' * <i>Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten</i> *

Author Information

Claire Hajaj has spent the past fifteen years working in international aid and conflict resolution for the United Nations, across war zones from Burma to Baghdad. She shares Palestinian and Jewish heritage, growing up between the deserts of the Middle East and the gardens of rural England. Claire’s writing has also appeared in Newsweek, The Sunday Times, New Statesman, The Telegraph, London Literary Review, as well as political institutions dedicated to peace. She has an MA in Classical and English Literature from Oxford University, and is a fellow of the UN Centre for Policy Research. She currently lives in Tajikistan.

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