The Water Is Wide - by Pat Conroy

Book Synopsis

A "miraculous" (Newsweek) memoir from the renowned #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini.

Yamacraw Island was haunting, nearly deserted, and beautiful. Separated from the mainland of South Carolina by a wide tidal river, it was accessible only by boat. But for the handful of families that lived on Yamacraw, America was a world away. For years these families lived proudly from the sea until waste from industry destroyed the oyster beds essential to their very existence. Already poor, they knew they would have to face an uncertain future unless, somehow, they learned a new life. But they needed someone to teach them, and their run-down schoolhouse had no teacher.

The Water Is Wide is Pat Conroy's extraordinary memoir based on his experience as one of two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, working with children the world had pretty much forgotten. It was a year that changed his life, and one that introduced a group of poor Black children to a world they did not know existed.

Review Quotes

"Miraculous. ... An experience of joy." -- Newsweek

"A hell of a good story." -- New York Times

"Conroy cuts through his experiences with a sharp edge of irony.... He brings emotion, writing talent and anger to his story." -- Baltimore Sun

"This is not a funny book, but you will find yourself in belly-heaving laughter; this is not a sentimental book, but you will weep; this is not an angry book, but you will shiver with antagonism at man's inhumanity to man; this is not a pretty book, but you will be haunted by some of its passages...The Water Is Wide is a great book." -- Charleston Evening Post

"An exciting and inspiring book." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A powerfully moving book...You will laugh, you will weep, you will be proud and you will rail...and you will learn to love the man." -- Charleston Post & Courier

"God preserve Pat Conroy." -- Boston Globe

"Conroy is an outstanding storyteller." -- Birmingham News