WINNER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION
October 1927. Bridge Weld is nineteen, headstrong, beautiful, and a petty thief. She is working in her grandfather Noel’s boatbuilding shop when Noel, a hardened seaman, is approached by a local bootlegger to refit a boat for smuggling. He takes the job for the money it offers—and the chance to build a future for Bridge and her brother, Luce. Noel invests his windfall profit in the soaring stock market, but does not count on Luce, a born risk-taker with a ruthless streak, venturing into the violence of the rum-running trade himself. Bridge embarks on a different course: She falls in love with Henry Vonniker, a World War I veteran, and an outsider from a higher social class. Caught up in her passion for Henry, Bridge moves beyond the bounds of her known world, and Luce’s fierce attachment to her spirals out of control.
The Season of Open Water is a mesmerizing tale of love and adventure centered on a blue-collar family forever changed by the lure and corruption of the American Dream.
