Buy new:
$10.35$10.35
Arrives:
Nov 3 - 16
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Murfbooks
Buy used: $8.19
Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $15.16 shipping
71% positive over last 12 months
+ $15.16 shipping
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Dreaming Water Paperback – May 1, 2003
| Price | New from | Used from |
Purchase options and add-ons
Bestselling author Gail Tsukiyama is known for her poignant, subtle insights into the most complicated of relationships. Dreaming Water is an exploration of two of the richest and most layered human connections that exist: mother and daughter and lifelong friends.
Hana is suffering from Werner's syndrome, a disease that makes a person age at twice the rate of a healthy individual: at thirty-eight Hana has the appearance of an eighty-year-old. Cate, her mother, is caring for her while struggling with her grief at losing her husband, Max, and with the knowledge that Hana's disease is getting worse by the day.
Hana and Cate's days are quiet and ordered. Cate escapes to her beloved garden and Hana reads and writes letters. Each find themselves drawn into their pasts, remembering the joyous and challenging events that have shaped them: spending the day at Max's favorite beach, overcoming their neighbors' prejudices that Max is Japanese-American and Cate is Italian-American, and coping with the heartbreak of discovering Hana's disease.
One of the great joys of Hana's life has been her relationship with her beautiful, successful best friend Laura. Laura has moved to New York from their hometown in California and has two daughters, Josephine and Camille. She has not been home in years and begs Hana to let her bring her daughters to meet her, feeling that Josephine, in particular, needs to have Hana in her life. Despite Hana's latest refusal, Laura decides to come anyway. When Laura's loud, energetic, and troubled world collides with Hana and Cate's daily routine, the story really begins.
Dreaming Water is about a mother's courage, a daughter's strength, and a friend's love. It is about the importance of human dignity and the importance of all the small moments that create a life worth living.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMay 1, 2003
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100312316089
- ISBN-13978-0312316082
Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Night of Many Dreams: A NovelPaperback$16.16 shippingGet it as soon as Thursday, Nov 9Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A poignant portrait of mother-daughter love in the face of death, without the attendant melodrama easily wrung from such material.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Beautifully written, effused with both sadness and hope, Tsukiyama's novel cannot fail to move readers.” ―Booklist starred review
“...Tsukiyama tells a simple story in a straightforward way...[in] a delicate, deceptively powerful new novel.” ―USA Today
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition (May 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0312316089
- ISBN-13 : 978-0312316082
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #773,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,096 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #9,096 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #9,155 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product, click here.
About the author

Gail Tsukiyama is the bestselling author of ?ve previous novels, including Women of the Silk and The Samurai's Garden, as well as the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
A difficult , tragic, situation told in loving fashion.
As has been true for me with each of her novels, I am sorry when the book is finished; I don't want to leave the characters, but I do carry their stories with me.
Top reviews from other countries
Cate and Max are finally blessed with a daughter they named Hana and the love among the three of them is strong and true and unbreakable. But Hana has been diagnosed with Werner's syndrome which is a caused by a gene that produces an abnormal enzyme which destroys good cells and causes her to age prematurely, two to three times faster than normal.
This book has nothing to do with Asia, rather it is about a family that endures a cruel reality where love never waivers and though the reader has to know the ending at the beginning you will still want to read this to experience the emotions it brings to the page. Thank you for another fine novel, Gail Tsukiyama.
The storytelling is perfect. So are the details. For example, on the first encounter, Josephine simply said to herself that small Hana reminded her of "a character in a George Lucas or Steven Spielberg movie." And then things began to change...
Thank you, Gail, for your heartwarming story, especially in this new age of discrimination. I want to read more about Josephine's changing.






