The Water Thief

Who decides what is right? How do we judge our actions? And how do we live with ourselves when things go wrong? From the award-winning author of Ishmael’s Oranges comes a searing novel with a profound moral conflict at its heart.

When a heart attack kills his father, young architect Nick abandons his comfortable London life to volunteer abroad for a year - a last chance to prove himself, and atone for old sins.

But in a remote village on the edge of the Sahara, dangerous currents soon engulf him: a simmering family conflict, hidden violence and fanaticism, his host’s lonely wife hiding secrets of her own. Their attraction threatens both their worlds, blurring the line between right and wrong. And when a deadly drought descends it brings an irrevocable choice. With all their hopes at stake, should he take matters into his own hands? Or let fate run its course? His decision has life-changing consequences for them all.