'It is a potent reminder of the fragility of solutions developed without context.'
*
Booklist Online *
'Hajaj offers a...hopeful vision of how people from different worlds can find common ground.'
*
Jewish Chronicle *
'Claire Hajaj follows her Middle Eastern-set debut, Ishmael's Oranges, with the engrossing story of Nick, an architect who, after the sudden death of his father, leaves his fiancee in London to help build a children's hospital in an unspecified village in the Sahara...inspired by the dilemmas she faced as an aid worker for the UN...it engages as a parable of a Westerner who, trying to do the right thing, finds that perhaps there is no right thing to be done.'
*
Daily Mail *
'Claire Hajaj writes with compassion and insight and her characters are rounded and believable... The Water Thief amply fulfils the promise of her debut novel and confirms that here is a writer who can invoke passion and intellect with equal and satisfying facility.'
*
New Internationalist *
'I finished The Water Thief with tears in my eyes. It's the story of so many Westerners who find meaning and purpose working in developing countries; who fall in love with a place and its people; who try so hard to make things better; and whose efforts can have tragic, unintended consequences.'
* Emma Sky, author of
The Unravelling *
'A deceptively simple story that addresses many of the problems facing western African nations...drought, corruption, politics, questionable charitable interventions...and wraps it all in a very human story of love and loss.'
*
Bookbag *
'An unpredictable and compelling work that will generate many conversations.'
*
Library Journal *
'This book completely tore my heart open and made me take a hard look at my own life... The characters in this book will long live in my heart and memory. This has to be one of the most thought-provoking, soul searching books I've ever read...exquisitely written, intense and profound.'
*
Marjorie's World of Books *
'Claire Hajaj [tells her story] with intensity and a deep sensitivity towards people, and all their strengths and shortcomings.'
* Katharina Wantoch, Emotion magazine *
'A profound Africa adventure.'
*
MYWAY *
'The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj improves the world.'
*
Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten *
