Aqua
Chiara Barzini
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From the publisher
A hybrid of memoir, travel and cultural history that explores how water altered LA and the history of film
‘Outrageously good … An unforgettable book’ – OLIVIA LAING
‘Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected … Chiara Barzini ducts and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey’ – GEOFF DYER
In 1913, William Mulholland finished building the Los Angeles Aqueduct – a 233-mile engineering masterwork transporting water from the Owens Valley, across the desert, to a barren corner of California that would become the home of filmmaking.
Over one hundred years later, award-winning Italian author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini traces the geography of the aqueduct, from its source, across the desert, to the city that it helped into existence, all while reckoning with her personal history with the landscape. From the ‘fake’ waters of the Universal Studios Jaws attraction to Salton Sea – California’s largest lake and ‘the only man-made mistake visible from space’ – Aqua explores how water, and its absence, shaped both a modern landscape and the history of film.
A blend of travel writing, philosophy, cultural history and memoir, Aqua is a hugely entertaining and wide-ranging exploration of water, film, dreams versus reality and an empire on the brink of catastrophe.
“Aqua was like going on a great adventure to unknown parts, but with a woman companion who helped me see many things from a new perspective. Water of course isn’t only water, it is life itself; and so what begins as a research of the Mulholland project diverting water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles held aloft by successive meetings with a Hollywood Director held me fascinated until the very end” Francis Ford Coppola
”Aqua is a great American road-trip book as Lolita is a great American road-trip book. (Why are our best road-trip books written by non-Americans, I wonder?) What Barzini has accomplished here is nothing short of visionary. Nothing short of ecstasy, too. A remarkable work” Lili Anolik
“An original and remarkable journey across a fading West and its unpredictable waters, filled with surprises, humour, and grit. Barzini does an impeccable job at drawing parallels between America’s dying empire and the end of ancient Rome” Gay Talese
“Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected … Chiara Barzini ducts and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey” Geoff Dyer
“From uncanny to metaphysical, the ‘nature’ of Los Angeles has become increasingly political. With her fluid narrative movements, Chiara Barzini evokes the infinite prophecies of a city” Claudia Durastanti