'Outrageously good . . . An unforgettable book' - OLIVIA LAING

'Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected . . . Chiara Barzini ducts and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey' - GEOFF DYER

In 1913, William Mulholland finished building the Los Angeles Aqueduct - a 233-mile engineering masterwork transporting water from the Owens Valley, across the desert, to a barren corner of California that would become the home of filmmaking.

Over one hundred years later, award-winning Italian author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini traces the geography of the aqueduct, from its source, across the desert, to the city that it helped into existence, all while reckoning with her personal history with the landscape. From the 'fake' waters of the Universal Studios Jaws attraction to Salton Sea - California's largest lake and 'the only man-made mistake visible from space' - Aqua explores how water, and its absence, shaped both a modern landscape and the history of film.

A blend of travel writing, philosophy, cultural history and memoir, Aqua is a hugely entertaining and wide-ranging exploration of water, film, dreams versus reality and an empire on the brink of catastrophe.

About the Author

Chiara Barzini is an award-winning Italian screen and fiction writer. She lived and studied in the United States where she covered lifestyle and culture stories for numerous American and Italian publications. She writes and translates both in English and Italian and is the author of the short story collection Sister Stop Breathing (Calamari Press, 2012) and the novel Things That Happened Before the Earthquake (Doubleday, 2017) which was a Best Book of the Year for Vogue, Esquire, Elle, Bustle, and the Guardian, and a best summer book for the New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, BBC, and Oprah! magazine. Her fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. She has a regular column in D Repubblica and is a Literature Advisor at the American Academy in Rome.

@chiarabarzini

Reviews
Aqua was like going on a great adventure to unknown parts, but with a woman companion who helped me see many things from a new perspective. Water of course isn't only water, it is life itself; and so what begins as a research of the Mulholland project diverting water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles held aloft by successive meetings with a Hollywood Director held me fascinated until the very end -- FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
Aqua is a great American road-trip book as Lolita is a great American road-trip book. (Why are our best road-trip books written by non-Americans, I wonder?) What Barzini has accomplished here is nothing short of visionary. Nothing short of ecstasy, too. A remarkable work -- LILI ANOLIK
An original and remarkable journey across a fading West and its unpredictable waters, filled with surprises, humour, and grit. Barzini does an impeccable job at drawing parallels between America's dying empire and the end of ancient Rome -- GAY TALESE
Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected . . . Chiara Barzini ducts and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey -- GEOFF DYER
From uncanny to metaphysical, the 'nature' of Los Angeles has become increasingly political. With her fluid narrative movements, Chiara Barzini evokes the infinite prophecies of a city -- CLAUDIA DURASTANTI
A visionary, ultra-timely audit of big dreams and high costs. In Barzini's hands, the tale of the stolen water that let Los Angeles flourish becomes a wild parable about illusion and limitation, about what human desire has done to the planet and what it feels like to exist at the end of an empire -- OLIVIA LAING
Outrageously good . . . An unforgettable book -- OLIVIA LAING



Book Information
ISBN 9781837265046
Author Chiara Barzini
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 411g
Dimensions(mm) 220mm * 141mm * 32mm