Michigan-based author Bonnie Jo Campbell recently got an unexpected boost for her newest novel, The Waters.
The Waters takes place in the fictional Great Massasauga Swamp of Michigan.
The island locale is known for its endangered poisonous snakes and the rugged people who live there. Campbell says the novel focuses on three generations of women who feel threatened by the world.
“The women were always revered on the island,” Campbell told WKAR. “They were thought of as healers, but there are some forces that are making the townspeople suspicious of the women now.”
The eldest of these characters, Hermine Zook, is widely referred to as Herself.
“Sometimes in an Irish family, the man of the family was referred to as Himself,” Campbell explained. “I thought it would be fun to have a really powerful matriarch who was very much both feared and respected in the community and the family.”
The second generation of this clan includes three estranged daughters. The middle daughter, Rose Thorn, is described as the most beautiful, and the most foolish.
“If you read your fairy tales, you know that means that she is the one who will save them all,” Campbell continued. “The story does have a bit of a fairy tale element to it, and so this reinforces that.”
Rose’s failings as a mother have left the youngest of the main characters, 11-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, growing up as a wild child.
Campbell herself lives near Kalamazoo and raises donkeys, a fact mentioned on NBC’s Today show earlier this year, when host Jenna Bush Hager named The Waters as the choice for her book club.
Campbell was floored by the announcement, which she says is already influencing sales.
Today is featuring The Waters again this week, inviting Campbell to New York City to appear on the show.
“At home in Michigan, I wear many layers of warm clothing, and I wear big boots, and I feed donkeys. I often have manure on my boots," Campbell joked. "I’m going to have to clean up my act to be on the show!”
Bonnie Jo Campbell should be used to such acclaim by now. She was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. Her other works, including Once Upon a River, Q Road and the short fiction collection American Salvage, have made her a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
While the attention to The Waters around the country swirls around Campbell, she’s still making in-person appearances to promote the novel, including a visit to the MSU Library at 5 p.m. on Feb. 19.
