Waterland

Generations of ancestors who acted as brewers and lock-keepers, demonstrating the long-term, intertwined history of the region. 3. Key Themes

The novel contrasts the need to live in the immediate moment (Price's perspective) with the necessity of remembering (Tom's perspective). Waterland

Tom recounts his adolescence during WWII in the Fens. He, his mentally challenged brother Dick , his girlfriend Mary , and another boy named Freddie Parr navigate the "waterlogged terrain". The plot involves sexual curiosity, murder (Freddie is killed), a grisly back-alley abortion for Mary, and a dark family secret involving incest. Generations of ancestors who acted as brewers and

Tom's older, mentally disabled brother. He is a local legend for his strength in the water, but is haunted by his parentage (he is the product of incest between his mother and grandfather). Tom recounts his adolescence during WWII in the Fens

The Fenland landscape—partly reclaimed, not quite solid land—symbolizes the precarious nature of civilization, memory, and personal identity.

A local boy killed early in the novel, whose death kicks off the "history" of the 1943 narrative.