The House of Deep Water

arrivals as vibrations in their chests, a skill they developed not for gossip's sake-or, at least, not solely. Instead, they are primed by an old evolutionary need. Women, especially those of limited means, must learn to read the signs. A lingering rumble of a familiar engine in the driveway at day's end means her husband is home, that he is held up in his car collecting something, perhaps his temper, before entering the house. An unfamiliar vibration at an unusual hour means a surprise visit-from an ex maybe, or a long-lost relative, a salesperson or the repo man.

 

In her two-bedroom house, which squats in the V of land between Main Street and Schoolhouse Road, Deborah Brody hears an engine idle in the driveway. It's the first Saturday in June, and her girls-Kelli, Mandy, and Hannah-are with their grandmother. Her husband, Steve, is working. Deborah peeks through a chink in the blinds to see a car she does not know, an old beat-up Buick. She has to squint to identify the driver, Gilmer Thurber, a man who has lived in town his whole life. She isn't sure what he's doing here. She lives next to the pet store, so she suspects he's headed there, though the longer she watches him, the longer he sits, his car facing the grade school across the street. How sad he must be. He never married. He lives with his sister in a house he inherited from his parents. Deborah has seen him before, watching the children playing, and the longing she sees in his face makes her body go cold. She tries to think what her life would be like if she'd never had kids. She used to dream of moving to a city, of having a job where she could wear high heels and blazers. But here she is, almost forty, living in the same cramped house her husband had when they met. Gilmer looks up and sees her, and his expression is a little sheepish as he puts his car in gear and drives away.

 

On the outskirts of town, a police car races down the dirt road past Dinah Williams's farm. She hears it approach fro

parents, children, siblings, lovers, friends McFarland creates a raw, intimate portrait of small-town U.S.A. Shelf Awareness

Just like life, McFarland s debut is big, messy, and complicated while also being a completely engrossing portrait of her characters and their hometown. She deftly weaves in issues of race and consent. Perfect for those who like books about family dysfunction.   Booklist

[A] fine debut. . .  Handled with realistic nuance. McFarland s layered tale will appeal to readers who liked Tayari Jones s An American Marriage.   Publishers Weekly

McFarland knows her way through the murk . . . The flood hinted at in the title arrives and delivers. So, in the end, does the story. A matriarchal tale asks who can thrive in small-town America.   Kirkus Reviews

Beautifully crafted, deeply moving, this timely debut novel is a masterful exploration of class, race and what it means to be a woman. McFarland has written that rare novel: a compelling page turner that has you savoring every sentence. Bianca Marais, author of Hum If You Don t Know the Words

You think a novel can t possibly do it all, and then you read The House of Deep Water. Here are voices from the heartland--outsiders and deserters, mothers and fathers, newly born and newly dead--rendered real, raw, and aching. Daringly told and dizzingly capable, these voices are finely braided into the most American of stories, that of the impossibility and inevitability of returning home. To say this novel redefines what it means to be a family is an understatement; this novel is a family, veering past and present, stitching the shipwrecked and the wanderers into a beautiful, irregular tapestry. Reminiscent of Celeste Ng s Little Fires Everywhere, this novel announces Jeni McFarland as a writer of our generation.   Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble

"A sensitive and aching meditation on reluctant homecomings, complicated families, and past selves. Poetic and yet unflinchingly told, this book does not provide clean absolution; rather, as Linda, Paula, and Beth confront the town and community that have shaped them, their weaving narratives mirror the messy contours of our real lives."  Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me

What a resounding symphony of voices! I knew and loved these people like family flaws and all by the final page. A rare novel that reveals human folly and restores hope at the same time.   Zach Powers, author of First Cosmic Velocity
 
Creates a place so real it feels like you can step into it, populated by characters so alive you can almost hear them breathing. McFarland's powerful debut is a brilliant exploration of home and heartbreak, and how we live with both of them. Mat Johnson, author of Loving Day

A Midwestern Gothic . . . It's about women building new lives against the currents of racism, class and gender inequality. It s about how relatives can know each other better than anyone else and still remain strangers. McFarland s prose churns spiraling waves of quiet tension that roar to brilliant and deeply affecting breaks. Donald Quist, author of For Other Ghosts and Harbors
 
"This book is full of all the things that can't be admitted and must be said about women and race in America. Reading Jeni McFarland's gorgeous prose felt like listening to the most private moments in the lives of these women, around a kitchen table in heartland America."  A. Rafael Johnson, author of The Through

A poetic hum underpins this intergenerational tale that slowly tangles the residents in relationships that draw people back to small towns, and drive them away. The House of Deep Water is unflinchingly honest. Tara Betts, author of Break the Habit

Unflinchingly examines the agonizing links of history and fate and love that inextricably bind the families of River Bend. There is abundant beauty present in the rendering of the darkness in these lives, and also, ultimately, in its presentation of moments of redeeming grace. This novel is a stunner. David Haynes, author of A Star in the Face of the Sky