''Memory of Water'' (Finnish: ''Teemestarin kirja'', "The Tea Master's Book") is the debut novel by Finnish author

Emmi Itäranta Emmi Elina Itäranta (born 1976) is a Finnish novelist. Her debut novel '' Memory of Water'' was published by HarperCollins in 2014. Biography Itäranta holds a MA in Drama from the University of Tampere, and worked as a columnist, theatre c ...

, published in 2014 by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. The Finnish version of the novel, which Itäranta wrote simultaneously along with the English one, was published in Finland in 2013 by the publishing house Teos. Set in a

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

future where fresh water is scarce, it tells the story of Noria, a young tea master's apprentice, who must come to terms with a great secret and even greater responsibility that follows this knowledge. The Finnish manuscript won the Fantasy and Sci-Fi Literary Fiction contest organised by Teos in 2012 and was subsequently published. The book won the

Kalevi Jäntti Award Kalevi may refer to * Kalevi (mythology), an ancient Finnish and Estonian ruler, known from the Finnish epic Kalevala and Estonian epic Kalevipoeg. * Kalevi, Estonia Kalevi is a village in Rapla Parish, Rapla County in northwestern Estonia ...

in 2012, and the Nuori Aleksis Award in 2013. It was also shortlisted for the 2013

Tähtivaeltaja Award Tähtivaeltaja Award is an annual prize by Helsingin science fiction seura ry for the best science fiction book released in Finnish. The winners 2016 Margaret Atwood: '' Uusi maa'' (MaddAddam, Otava) Shortlisted books: * Emmi Itäranta: ...

. The English language version of the book has been featured on several shortlists in both the US and the UK - the

Philip K. Dick Award The Philip K. Dick Award is an American science fiction award given annually at Norwescon and sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and (since 2005) the Philip K. Dick Trust. Named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ...

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best English language first novel of the year in the field of science fiction, fantasy, or horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society at their annual science fiction convention, Baltic ...

, Golden Tentacle Award and

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...

. The novel also appeared on the 2014 James Tiptree, Jr. Award Honor List.

References

{{reflist, 30em 2012 novels 2012 speculative fiction novels Environmental fiction books Dystopian novels Water scarcity in fiction 21st-century Finnish novels 2012 debut novels