"Originally published in 2017 in Great Britain by Penguin Random House UK as When light is like water"--Title page verso.

"Alice, a young American, arrives in the West of Ireland with no plans and no strong attachments--except to her beloved mother, who raised her on her own. Alice falls in love with an Irishman, marries him, and settles down in a place whose customs she struggles to understand. In the course of a single hot summer, she embarks on an affair that breaks her marriage and sets her life on a new course. Years later, after working in war zones around the world, and in the immediate aftermath of her mother's death, Alice finds herself back in Ireland and contemplating the forces that led her to put down roots and then tear them up again"--,Provided by publisher.