''Water Man'' is a 1993 novel by Australian novelist Roger McDonald.

Plot summary

The "water man" of the book's title is a

water diviner ''The Water Diviner'' is a 2014 drama film starring and directed by Russell Crowe, in his directorial debut, and written by Andrew Anastasios and Andrew Knight. The film is loosely based on the book of the same name written by Andrew Anastasio ...

—or rather two water diviners: one working on an Australian station in 1939 and the other working the same property 50 years later. Events surrounding the first divining echo down the years to the second, when tensions left unresolved re-emerge and engulf a new set of characters.

Notes

* Dedication: When bright things tarnish he will be truly gone. Then you will know him.

Reviews

Reviewing the novel in ''The Canberra Times'' Alan Gould noted: "Perhaps the most persistent theme in McDonald's work is that of the personality unfamiliar with itself; able to scrutinise nature and fellow human beings with great, and often lyrical particularity, but never quite at ease with either, never quite self-possessed. With its gentle use of fable, with its unobtrusive underpinnings in Jungian psychology, ''Water Man'' provides an intriguing, readable, progress to that theme."

Awards and nominations

* 1994 shortlisted

Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–19 ...

References

1993 Australian novels {{Australia-book-stub