Cleansing power of water

Boyne's writing is taut and careful. This is an intense story of a woman whose privileged life is overturned when her husband is imprisoned for monstrous crimes. To escape the media attention, she changes her name, cuts her hair, and retreats to a solitary life on a remote Irish Island. Here, surrounded by water where it also rains constantly, she is able to process her own complicity in what happened in the past including the loss of a daughter to drowning. Ultimately she experiences a catharsis and is able to move on. I loved this and cannot wait to read the second in the series 'Earth' which has just come out.