Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages by Vanitha Sankaran
There were things I loved and things I didn’t love about this book. I thought that Vanitha Sankaran did a wonderful job of setting up the story – the birth of Auda and death of her mother, Elena was heartbreaking and an eye-opening (if a bit predictable) method to open the story.
I loved the educational aspect of making paper and the way the story revolved around the tracts labeled as “heresy” and the connection that papermakers risked. I actually thought the historical aspect of this novel was the most interesting part of it and carried the story of Auda and her family.
Which brings me to what I was disappointed in. I felt as if Auda, her sister and her father were sort of glossed over and we were given half-stories .. just enough to keep the story moving but not enough to make me feel a connection to her. The person I felt the strongest for was actually Auda’s mother – and she had just a few short pages devoted to her.
Overall though, it is an interesting perspective on the Middle Ages and one worth reading as long as you don’t expect to have any lasting impression of character to carry away from it.
