The English-language debut of an award-winning Italian novelist, following a teenage girl as her family transitions to a fraught new beginning in a tranquil lakeside town, capturing the disillusionment, loneliness, and rage that defined a generation. 

 

  • “Achingly stylish and emotionally resonant, The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet maps the razor’s edge between tenderness and violence, revealing how the wounds of social inequality can transform a young woman’s yearning for connection into something far more dangerous. This is a stunning and profoundly moving novel from an outrageously gifted writer.”—Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe

    “Both harsh and hypnotic, this deeply observed coming-of-age story hinges on two ideas: betrayal by others, betrayal of self. In a series of breathtaking and heartbreaking moments, we watch in what often feels like real time the awakening of a brave girl.”—Betsy Lerner, author of Shred Sisters

    “A devastating, tender, utterly beautiful coming-of-age story. I am in awe of Caminito’s writing, both unflinching and generous.”—Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists

    “[Caminito] captures the essence of adolescence with its deep sorrows and radiant joys. She also excels in the ruthless depiction of the social determinisms that stifle dreams and the trajectories of the poorer classes.”—Le Monde

    “[A] beautiful coming-of-age novel.”—El Mundo

    “[The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet] will never let you go.”—Der Spiegel

    “This new work breathes the same life as [Caminito’s] earlier writings, with a sharpness in style that aptly conveys the challenges of growing up—acknowledging true friends over fair-weather ones and finding pride in one’s authentic self.”—L'Express

    “Caminito adds her name to the list of talented novelists with a sharp style that recounts the harshness and precariousness of life in neglected neighborhoods, similar to Silvia Avallone or Elena Ferrante.”—La Croix

    “If the torments of adolescence are universal, the harsh poetry of The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet gracefully reminds us how it is a unique drama for each individual.”—Lire

  • In the 1990s, Gaia’s family moves from the neglected peripheries of Rome to an idyllic lakeside town twenty miles away, in search of a new life that will lift them out of poverty. Each of them bears their own scars: Gaia’s strong-willed mother is fiercely determined to secure a better future for her children at any cost; her father, a once proud man, now suffers in bitter silence after a devastating accident; her anarchist older brother rebels against the political apathy he sees at home; and her young twin brothers wordlessly bear witness to a family in decay. 

    When Gaia meets two local girls, Agata and Carlotta, the trio builds a fragile friendship throughout their adolescence based as much on their insecurities and jealousies as it is on their mutual affection. Gaia’s encounters with callous boys and contemptuous teachers convince her that she might always be an outsider—excluded from a privileged life and perhaps even beyond the possibility of happiness. Faced with bullying and betrayals among her peers and immense pressure from her mother to excel, Gaia turns inward and her world becomes increasingly insular. Then tragedy strikes her friend group. As more friends slip away and her family fractures, Gaia vows to make the world pay for all the things it has denied her. 

    Winner of the Campiello Prize, The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet is an unflinching portrait of a generation, striving to make a place for themselves in a world markedly different from the one their parents promised them. With psychological acuity and stylish prose, Caminito takes us into the volatile, searching mind of a young woman torn between her desire to connect with others and her drive for self-preservation. In a novel that has been acclaimed by readers around the world, Caminito shows how tenderness and fragility often lie just beneath the surface of simmering fury. 

    PRODUCT DETAILS

    ISBN: 9781954118669
    Price: $28.00
    On-sale date: 7/8/2025
    Weight: 1.05 lbs.

GIULIA CAMINITO’s first novel, The Big A (Giunti, 2016), won the Bagutta Opera Prima Prize, the Berto Prize, and the Brancati Giovani Prize. She is also the author of The Day Will Come (Bompiani, 2019), The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet (Bompiani, 2021), and Amatissime (Giulio Perrone, 2022). The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet won the 2021 Campiello Prize and was a finalist for the Strega Prize. Caminito’s books have been translated in over twenty countries. She lives in Rome. 

 Instagram