Set in India in 1938, against the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhis rise to power, Water follows the life of eight-year-old Chuyia, a child-bride who is abandoned at a widows ashram in Benares after her fifty-year-old husband dies. Unwilling to accept her fate, Chuyia becomes a catalyst for change in the lives of the widows. Sidhwas sensitive storytelling makes this a novel rich with unforgettable characters. Water offers a riveting examination of the lives of widows in colonial India but ultimately it is a haunting and lyrical story of love, faith, and redemption.