Paperback

The Water Takes

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An unimaginable apocalypse. A scared young girl. A stubborn old woman. But without each other, neither will survive.

Pam is in her mid-seventies, widowed and hiding from the world behind a caustic sense of humour. Her health is declining, and she’s afraid of dying alone, but her most pressing concern is complaining to the council about her waterlogged garden.

When Pam’s ten-year-old neighbour, Charlotte, is foisted upon her, a tentative friendship begins to unfurl, cracking open Pam’s hard exterior.

But the puddles in the garden become pools, and then sinkholes. Nowhere seems safe. With no help coming, Pam and Charlotte can only shelter in place for so long – eventually, they know they must attempt to navigate a catastrophically altered world.

The Water Takes is a work of astonishing literary imagination with the urgent page-turning propulsion of a thriller. Full of surprises and revelations, with a sense of humanity that is never clichéd or sentimental, The Water Takes will make you laugh and cry – and it will stay with you forever.

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Format

Paperback

Publisher

Simon & Schuster Australia

Country

Australia

Date

31 March 2026

Pages

304

ISBN

9781761633324

An unimaginable apocalypse. A scared young girl. A stubborn old woman. But without each other, neither will survive.

When Pam’s ten-year-old neighbour, Charlotte, is foisted upon her, a tentative friendship begins to unfurl, cracking open Pam’s hard exterior.

Format

Paperback

Publisher

Simon & Schuster Australia

Country

Australia

Date

31 March 2026

Pages

304

ISBN

9781761633324

Book Review

The Water Takes
by Sarah Walker

by Melanie Barton, Mar 2026

Almost thriller-like in scope, The Water Takes is about Pam, a lady in her 70s, who has had many sadnesses in her life that now keep her hiding from the world in her house. These events are slowly revealed in small fragments over the course of the novel. The neighbour’s 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte, starts turning up at her house, and they form a friendship that brings Pam out of her shell a little. They are bought together by the large sinkholes appearing in the neighbourhood and devastation to the people around them.

This is a debut for Sarah Walker and an exciting and original one at that. I really enjoyed the characterisation and emotional depth of Pam and Charlotte’s relationship as they deal with the crisis of what to do when there is no end to what’s happening around them and no help coming. At its heart, The Water Takes is a dystopian novel that is so immediate in devastation that it keeps you very engaged and compelled to keep turning the pages. Dealing with grief, mental ill-health, ageing, coming of age, and environmental disaster, I really look forward to reading whatever Walker comes up with next. An exciting new Australian author to watch.