An immersive and compelling debut novel that blends magical realism with emotional truth

Haunted by her Parisian past, Mariana lives alone in an old kauri oyster-boat in a small New Zealand town beside the sea. She works as a school music teacher, and is content, after a fashion. But the land has its own memory - volcanic, primordial, restless. Racial tensions and historical grievance bubble up from the depths, and Mariana is gradually drawn into a web of stories that echo her own grief, loss and desire for healing. When the volcano Anahira stirs, the past returns to confront the present and the sea rises to reclaim what was lost. The Water and the Night is a poignant yet hopeful novel about walking forwards while looking back.\