Memory of Water
The original novel was published in 2012.
Kalevi Jäntti Literary Prize 2012.
Philip K. Dick Award nominee 2014.
An amazing, award-winning speculative fiction debut novel by a major new talent, in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin
Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.
But secrets do not stay hidden forever, and after her father’s death the army starts watching their town — and Noria. And as water becomes even scarcer, Noria must choose between safety and striking out, between knowledge and kinship.
Imaginative and engaging, lyrical and poignant, Memory of Water is an indelible novel that portrays a future that is all too possible.
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Emmi Itäranta
When Emmi Itäranta began writing Memory of Water, she did something quietly radical—she wrote it in two languages at once. Switching back and forth between Finnish and English as the story unfolded, she created a novel that carried the rhythm and intimacy of both languages, a rare duality that mirrors the world she so often writes about: beautiful, fragile, and quietly brimming with tension.
Born in Tampere, Finland, Itäranta grew up surrounded by forests, lakes, and a culture steeped in nature’s rhythms—landscapes that seep into her fiction like mist. Her writing is not loud or showy; it lingers like a memory, often blurring the line between dystopia and dream. Her debut novel, Memory of Water, tells the story of a young tea master’s apprentice in a future where water is tightly rationed—a haunting premise rendered with poetic restraint. The book earned international acclaim, winning the Kalevi Jäntti Prize and being nominated for both the Philip K. Dick Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, quietly placing her on the global speculative fiction map.
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Reviews and Comments
Yes, it's very easy to imagine that the situation described in this book will come true. And so it's a very disturbing book if you keep this in mind while reading. I liked the style of the book very much: Emmi Itäranta didn't try to describe each and every single detail or event in the past. And so the reader has got the chance to live out his or her own imagination - really amazing!