The only novel by the beloved, and influential, Millikin University English Department chairperson and professor Davida McCaslin, back in print for the first time in 70 years.
Bold Water is a lyrical, quietly radical novel about love colliding with tradition on a rigid New England coast. When Edward Smithpeters, heir to a centuries-old clerical dynasty, brings home Jessy—an Irish dancer with no patience for piety or restraint—their marriage ignites a battle between inherited righteousness and lived joy. As family pressure, social judgment, and quiet acts of sabotage close in, Jessy’s fierce sensuality and instinct for beauty challenge a world built on repression and duty. Set against the tides, storms, and deep harbors of a coastal village, Bold Water is a novel about marriage as defiance, desire as wisdom, and the cost of choosing freedom over approval.
“A beautiful story of Maine. The book has color, excitement and reality.” Decatur Daily Review
“Her writing is marked by a delicate quality,” Decatur Herald & Review
Davida McCaslin /
Historical, Literary Fiction
