Let Me Be Like Water

'Intimate, ruthless, tender: this book is like medicine for the soul.' —Nina George, author of The Little Paris Bookshop A beautifully poignant and poetic debut about love, loss, friendship, and ultimately, starting over. Twenty-something Holly has moved to Brighton to escape her grief. But now that she's here, sitting on a bench, listening to the rolling waves, how is she supposed to fill the void her boyfriend left when he died? She had thought she wanted to be on her own. But after a chance encounter with retired, part-time baker and book-club host, Frank, she is soon adopted by a new circle of friends, and the tides begin to shift. Beautifully written, Let Me Be Like Water is a moving and powerful debut about loneliness, friendship, the extraordinariness hiding in everyday life.

Under the cathartic spell of the sea, and with a little help from a retired magician, a young woman learns how to rebuild her life in this stunningly poignant debut novel. Holly moved to Brighton to escape her grief over the death of her boyfriend, Sam. But now she is here, sitting on a bench, listening to the sea sway ... what is supposed to happen next? She had thought she'd want to be on her own. Wrecked. Stranded. But after she meets Frank, the tide begins to shift. Frank, a retired magician who has experienced his own loss but manages to be there for everyone else. Gradually, as he introduces Holly to a circle of new friends, young and old, all with their own stories of love and grief to share, she begins to learn to live again. A moving and powerful debut, Let Me Be Like Water is a book simultaneously about nothing and everything: about the humdrum yet extraordinariness of everyday life; of lost and new connections; of loneliness and friendship.

Join Bartholomew Cubbins in Dr. Seuss’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book about a king’s magical mishap! Bored with rain, sunshine, fog, and snow, King Derwin of Didd summons his royal magicians to create something new and exciting to fall from the sky. What he gets is a storm of sticky green goo called Oobleck—which soon wreaks havock all over his kingdom! But with the assistance of the wise page boy Bartholomew, the king (along with young readers) learns that the simplest words can sometimes solve the stickiest problems.