Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2020. Shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2021. Runner up for The Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2021.
'VERY MOVING, A WARM AND COMPASSIONATE NOVEL' Diana Evans
'TENDER, HEARTFELT AND HEART-BREAKING' Francis Spufford
Optioned for film by Monumental Pictures/Lionsgate.
Maddy is sixteen. She has loyal friends, a mother with whom she's unusually close, a father she's never met, devoted grandparents, and a crush on a boy named Jack. Maddy is also dying.
Told alternately by Maddy and her mother, Eve, All the Water in the World is a heart-breaking story of a family doing its best when faced with the worst, and a poignant testimony to the transformative power of love.
'DEEPLY REWARDING AND WHOLLY UNFORGETTABLE' Bret Anthony Johnston
'CAPTIVATING AND WARM AND REAL' Janet Ellis 'ASTONISHINGLY MOVING' Joanna Hershon'A TENDER BRUISE OF A NOVEL' Mary Paulson-Ellis
Read MoreAn extraordinary achievement for a first novel: tender, heartfelt and heart-breaking. - Francis Spufford, author of GOLDEN HILLI loved this. It's captivating and warm and real and I adored being in Maddy and Eve's company. The setting is perfectly described, the characters are perfectly drawn and the story is a layered delight. It almost broke my heart - and entirely restored my faith in human nature. - Janet Ellis, author of HOW IT WASKaren Raney is a writer of rare gifts-nuanced characters, shimmering prose, and a riveting story. All the Water in the World is heart-rending in its power and gorgeous in its telling, a deeply rewarding and wholly unforgettable debut novel. - Bret Anthony Johnston, author of REMEMBER ME LIKE THISWith a lyric and suspenseful intensity reminiscent of Sue Miller, Karen Raney has written an astonishingly moving novel about the boundaries and boundlessness of life and love. - Joanna Hershon, author of A DUAL INHERITANCE and THE OUTSIDE OF AUGUSTAll The Water in the World is a book about life and death, joy and grief fused together, both affirming and heartbreaking. In Eve and Maddy, Karen Raney has created a mother-daughter relationship as fraught and passionate as any in recent memory. "Do everything all at once" is Maddy's philosophy as well as the motto of this kinetic and beautiful book. - Darcey Steinke, author of Easter EverywhereRaney's ardent debut examines love and loss through the eyes of Maddy, a vibrant 16-year-old girl diagnosed with cancer, and Eve, her loving mother . . . Raney's pleasing tale is a deep, genuine investigation of memory, the pain of loss, and the strength of a mother's love. - Publishers' WeeklyHeartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Unafraid to probe the complexities of parenthood and partnership, Raney is an author to watch - BooklistAn exquisite tracing of the tangled lines of mother-daughter love, loss, and grief - Kirkus