Water Thief

 From the award-winning author of Ishmael’s Oranges comes a searing novel with a profound moral conflict at its heart.When a heart attack kills his father, young architect Nick abandons his comfortable London life to volunteer abroad for a year – a last chance to prove himself, and atone for old sins.But in a remote village on the edge of the Sahara, dangerous currents soon engulf him: a simmering family conflict, hidden violence and dangerous fanaticism. An illicit attraction to his host’s lonely wife soon threatens both of their worlds. But when a deadly drought descends it brings an irrevocable choice: should he take matters into his own hands? Or let fate run its course? His decision has life-changing consequences for them all.   

'It is a potent reminder of the fragility of solutions developed without context.', ‘Hajaj offers a…hopeful vision of how people from different worlds can find common ground.’, ‘Claire Hajaj follows her Middle Eastern-set debut, Ishmael’s Oranges, with the engrossing story of Nick, an architect who, after the sudden death of his father, leaves his fiancée in London to help build a children’s hospital in an unspecified village in the Sahara…inspired by the dilemmas she faced as an aid worker for the UN…it engages as a parable of a Westerner who, trying to do the right thing, finds that perhaps there is no right thing to be done.’, ‘Claire Hajaj writes with compassion and insight and her characters are rounded and believable... The Water Thief amply fulfils the promise of her debut novel and confirms that here is a writer who can invoke passion and intellect with equal and satisfying facility.’, ‘I finished The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It’s the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard to make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.’

Claire Hajaj has spent the past fifteen years working in international aid and conflict resolution for the United Nations, across war zones from Burma to Baghdad. She shares Palestinian and Jewish heritage, growing up between the deserts of the Middle East and the gardens of rural England. Claire’s writing has also appeared in Newsweek, The Sunday Times, New Statesman, The Telegraph, London Literary Review, as well as political institutions dedicated to peace. She has an MA in Classical and English Literature from Oxford University, and is a fellow of the UN Centre for Policy Research. She currently lives in London.