Short description
'STEALING WATER is a simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of poor-white family life in the twilight of apartheid' - Richard E. Grant
Long description
A very different memoir about growing up in South Africa. 'Funny, never self-pitying and a pleasure to read' -- GUARDIAN '[An] affectionate, generous book' - IRISH TIMES 'Both haunting and funny. [Ecott] writes with compassion and honesty to give us a truly memorable account of an extraordinary upbringing' -- Fergal Keane 'Unputdownable - never sentimental, extremely honest and with a positively Dickensian cast of characters' - Emma Thompson
Review
'Funny, never self-pitying and a pleasure to read' -- Guardian 'There are belly laughs enough, and some serious criminality to boot, but Ecott's outstanding talent as an author is for pathos. [It] moved me more than once to tears. As an author, Dickens is the comparison' -- Matthew Parris, The Times 'Engrossing [...] it's a love story without romance, or redemption, or a tidy resolution; and all the finer for it' -- Mail on Sunday 20080316 'The narrative crackles and fizzles along' -- Irish Times 20080223 'An extraordinary account of childhood in a baroque South Africa. Unputdownable - never sentimental, extremely honest and with a positively Dickensian cast of characters' -- Emma Thompson 20080223 'The greatest memoir to come out of white Africa since Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart - it reads like Angela's Ashes rewritten by Nick Hornby under a baking Johannesburg sun ... told with warmth, humanity and humour to burn' -- Tony Parsons 20080223 'A truthful story brilliantly told - both funny and moving. I often had to lay the book aside to recover from laughter ... Tim Ecott cleverly captures the feeling of an extraordinary life' -- Lynne Reid Banks 20080223 'Tim Ecott's story of growing up in Ireland and Africa is both haunting and funny. He writes with compassion and honesty to give us a truly memorable account of an extraordinary upbringing' -- Fergal Keane 20080223 'STEALING WATER is a simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking portrait of poor-white family life in the twilight of apartheid' -- Richard E. Grant 20080223 'Excellent' -- Metro 20080223