The Hundred Waters

“With this gem of a novel, Acampora cements herself as a thrilling voice in fiction.”—Booklist, starred review

Celebrated by the Boston Globe as “a brilliant anthropologist of the suburbs,” the seductively weird and darkly offbeat Lauren Acampora returns to the lush world that got us all hooked on NPR Best Book of the Year The Wonder Garden, drawing us into the secret lives of a polished Connecticut haven and jolting us with the sparks that fly when those lives collide

Formerly a model and photographer trying to make it in New York, Louisa Rader is back in her affluent hometown of Nearwater, Connecticut, where she's married to a successful older architect, raising a preteen daughter, and trying to vitalize the provincial local art center. As the years pass, she's grown restless in her safe and comfortable routine, haunted by the flash of the life she used to live. When intense and intriguing young artist-environmentalist Gabriel arrives in town with his aristocratic family, his impact on the Raders has hothouse effects. As Gabriel pushes to realize his artistic vision for the world, he pulls both Louisa and her daughter Sylvie under his spell, with consequences that disrupt the Raders’ world forever.

A strange, sexy, and sinister novel of art and obsession, in The Hundred Waters Acampora gives us an incisive, page-turning story of ambition, despair, desire, and the price of fulfillment and freedom at all costs.

Praise for The Hundred Waters

“With this gem of a novel, Acampora cements herself as a thrilling voice in fiction.”—Booklist, starred review

“A thrilling drama”—Vogue (A Best Book of 2022)

”In the tradition of territory-marking novelists John Cheever and John Updike, Lauren Acampora expertly captures deep-pocketed suburban restlessness in The Hundred Waters… Through its delicate narrative circuitry and roving point of view, the novel gradually exposes a community that's in crisis without even knowing it.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Questions of the pursuit of art, stagnation, youth and aging, and how to exist on a planet that is, increasingly, made up solely of emergencies, are grounded in the richness (no pun intended) of Sylvie and Louisa’s characters. And, as in The Paper Wasp, Acampora’s descriptions of the strangeness of artworks are not to be missed.” —Lit Hub, Best Summer Reads

“With a fluid writing style and a plot that moves along quickly, Acampora’s absorbing new work is an excellent choice for book discussion groups. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal, starred review

“Acampora weaves a tale of artistic ambition, climate activism, and the seductive allure of extravagant wealth. Told in the author's signature lush prose… [T]his is an enchanting pool…” —Kirkus Reviews

“Arresting… Acampora achieves a sharp and tense depiction of an illusory and stultifying haven.” —Publishers Weekly