Properties of Thirst

By Marianne Wiggins,

Book cover of Properties of Thirst

Book description

A National Bestseller
A New Yorker Best Book of 2022

Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a "big, bold book" (USA TODAY) destined to be an American classic: a sweeping masterwork set during World War…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Properties of Thirst as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I heard of this book from a neighbor, and now I’m telling everyone to read it.

This is a historical fiction set in California, where I live, and it has wonderful, diverse, complex characters. A family saga infused with the landscape of the Eastern Sierras and its water wars, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the WWII internment of Japanese Americans, and gourmet French cuisine.

The book had amazing prose that took my breath away on every page. This novel prompted me to travel to the museum at Manzanar, the former Japanese internment camp, which is well worth visiting. 

The story…

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