The Seduction of Water
Jan 2003 · Ballantine Books
4.4star
9 reviewsreport
Ebook
400
Pages
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About this ebook
Iris Greenfeder, ABD (All But Dissertation), feels the “buts” are taking over her life: all but published, all but a professor, all but married. Yet the sudden impulse to write a story about her mother, Katherine Morrissey, leads to a shot at literary success. The piece recounts an eerie Irish fairy tale her mother used to tell her at bedtime—and nestled inside it is the sad story of her death. It captures the attention of her mother’s former literary agent, who is convinced that Katherine wrote one final manuscript before her strange, untimely end in a fire thirty years ago. So Iris goes back to the remote Hotel Equinox in the Catskills, the place where she grew up, to write her mother’s biography and search for the missing manuscript—and there she unravels a haunting mystery, one that holds more secrets than she ever expected. . . .
Ratings and reviews
4.4
9 reviews
Mary Wasilewski
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June 24, 2025
I've read several of Carol Goodman's books and enjoyed them. This one seemed slow to build. Once it was up and running, though, it became easier to follow. The story is about the daughter of a famous writer hoping to find out the truth behind her mother's death. The daughter, Iris, has two love interests. One suitor named Jack seems to treat her as a habit, then as a possible bank account. The other, Aidan, is a student she teaches at a prison. When he is free, she gets him a job at the hotel. The hotel was managed by Iris's parents. Iris realizes getting a summer job at the hotel would be a good chance to dig into her mother's past and possibly find the manuscript her mother never completed. Things are complicated by the sale of the hotel, a growing relationship with Aidan, missing jewelry, stolen art and the appearance of non-committal Jack. Most of the ends tie up neatly in the end. Some didn't. I couldn't help but think, so Iris went through all this but didn't do this? Why didn't she find out them truth about that? Some questions just weren't answered.
Kacie Saice
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June 21, 2017
I love the melding of present day drama mixed with fairy tales
Wendy Lovelace
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December 15, 2020
It's quiet the page turner!!! Very Enthralling!!! Hard to put down!!!
About the author
Carol Goodman is the author of The Lake of Dead Languages. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latté, The Midwest Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduation from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an M.F.A. in fiction from the New School University. Goodman currently teaches writing and works as a writer-in-residence for Teachers & Writers. She lives on Long Island.
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