The Season of Open Water

by Dawn Tripp

From the critically acclaimed author of Moon Tide comes a mesmerizing novel of love and violence, family and betrayal. The Season of Open Water is the passionate, searing story of a young woman coming of age in a New England seacoast town that is swept up in the dangerous trade of rum-running.

It is October 1927. Bridge Weld is nineteen, headstrong and beautiful, working in her grandfather Noel's boatbuilding shop. When Noel is approached by a local bootlegger to refit a boat for smuggling, he feels in his gut that he should not accept the work, yet he takes the job for the money it offers and for the chance it gives him to build a future for his beloved granddaughter, Bridge, and her brother, Luce. What Noel doesn’t count on is that Luce will be lured into the rum work himself and will try to pull Bridge into it with him.

But Bridge has embarked on a different course. Caught up in a passion for Henry, a veteran of World War I, Bridge is propelled beyond the confines of her known world, and ultimately she must choose between the man who loves her and the brother to whom she has been loyal all her life. As Bridge strikes out on her own, Luce's fierce attachment spirals out of control.

Exquisitely written, haunting in its rendering of place, The Season of Open Water is a superb novel about a family and the lawlessness of the heart, a love story that explores the often inescapable connections between violence and desire.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Dawn Tripp is the nationally bestselling author of five novels. Her most recent, JACKIE, a fictionalized biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award and won the San Diego Writers Historical Fiction Award. She is also the author of GEORGIA, finalist for the New England Book Award and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. Previous novels include GAME OF SECRETS, MOON TIDE, and THE SEASON OF OPEN WATER, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, NPR, and Conjunctions. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. She currently serves as chair of the board of the Boston Book Festival, and as a visiting writer at the Island School.

www.DawnTripp.com

Reviews

[Kim Wright]

I also loved Moon Tide, Tripp's first book about the New England coast, and together her novels show two sides of Massachusetts life.

An isolated and insular town is swept away by a hurricane in the dreamy Moon Tide while the same town in the base for the violent rum-running trade in The Season of Open Water. But whether the brutality comes in human or man-made form, Tripp is a master of showing how the tenuous peace of daily life can be suddenly shattered, throwing her characters into internal and external chaos. I consider these books to be perfect examples of "the thinking woman's beach reads" since they show how the ocean, like the human heart, is capable of changing from placid to tumultuous with every turn of the page.

[Laura Harrington]

Gorgeously written book. Evocative of time and place, recreates an era and conjures an entire world. And even though I often paused to admire a turn of phrase, the writing always served the story. This book is nothing short of exquisite.

[Bea]

This book was very well written. I knew that one of them was going to die, I just didn't know which one. Ok, I was hoping for a different ending, but it all ended up just as it was leading to throughout the book. What's the point in writing an unhappy fiction when there are no lessons learned and no one is better off?
Also, the fact that Bridge and Henry just "knew" everything, that she and Henry were going to be in a relationship, that they loved each other when they'd never spoken a word, that she was in total control all the time, just seemed too unbelievable to me. Especially when she didn't have the sense to say no to her brother when he wants her to help him in his illegal business. It was all just too cerebral to be real.

[Theresa]

I saw this author at a book reading. She was great. The book is spare and raw, mysterious and well-crafted.

[Lysne]

what beautiful language. It is rare to find an author who takes each situation and looks at it so carefully. She is master of language.

[Katy]

A sort of sad and melancholy book.

[KATHI SLAUGHTER]

Just A Plain Good Story

Sometimes, especially as the autumn season loosens it's grasp on summer and dredges toward winter, you just want to put on your favorite sweater, fill your favorite mug, curl up in your favorite chair and settle into just a plain good story. This book would be it. Enjoy.

[Joy]

good

[Cynthia]

A beautifully lyrically written novel. A book to make you stop and reread a passage because it is so lovely. It's easy to become absorbed in the characters and the ending was unexpected. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to become engrossed in a period of history.

[Maryann Geiser]

I found the book a bit unsatisfying. I like her writing - her descriptions are lovely. But I think I expected more out of the characters than was there.

[Amanda]

another thoroughly engrossing novel by Dawn Tripp.

[Susan Hammond]

gorgeous book. beautiful rendering of character and place.

[Trish]

Beautiful writing! Loved it!

[Twanna R]

Good read. What an ending. We all make choices.