An Instant New York Times Bestseller
An Oprah's Book Club Pick
An Amazon Best Book of May 2023
Named a Most Anticipated Book by the Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oprah Daily, Publishers Weekly, Literary Hub, and BookPage
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year- old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl - and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi - will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.