From the Miles Franklin-shortlisted author of Leap comes an unforgettable new novel about fathers and sons, and the damage that can ripple through generations.

Frank feared a reckoning, but what he feared more was that all the men in his family were cursed.

Frank Herbert’s family has gathered at Tinaroo Dam for his daughter Lily’s wedding – the first time he’s been back since the death of his father, Joe, a year earlier. Like Frank, the dam is at an all-time low and as the water recedes, objects begin to emerge – abstract and disquieting.

Joe’s father Victor – Frank’s grandfather – was the butcher of Tinaroo during the dam’s construction, but Joe refused to speak of him. Joe was not a talker, but he could roar. And he could smash things. What sorrow was his fury, and this place, concealing? And can Frank find a way into a future of his own making?

Moving between the weekend of the wedding and the explosive year in the 1950s that would shape the Herbert men’s destiny, Cool Water is an unforgettable novel about fathers and sons, what it means to be a good man, and the damage that can ripple through generations.

A breathtaking story brimming with insight and emotional power by Miles Franklin-shortlisted author Myfanwy Jones.