Former high school classmates reckon with the death of a friend in this stunning debut novel of uncommon tenderness.

Having forged a new identity as a gay man in New York, Daniel Henriquez returns to the floodlands where he went to high school, to mourn Aubrey, the self-identified “redneck” girl he loved back then. His track team buddies—Twig, a long-distance runner; Desmond, a sprinter; Des’s girlfriend, Egypt; and Jess, Aubrey’s best friend—help him reckon with who they are to him, and he to them. Recklessly, he confronts the good-ole-boy responsible for Aubrey’s death, and comes out to his old friends as his own man, embracing the people and places he loves.

All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running limns the complexities of class, race, and sexuality in the American South and in Jamaica, where Daniel’s family originates. It evokes, in precise, elegiac prose, the beauty and threat of the place Daniel considers home—where the river meets the ocean.

About the Author: Elias Rodriques has written for the Guardian, the Nation, Bookforum, and other venues. He is an assistant professor of African-American literature at Sarah Lawrence College, and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.