“An evocative, richly researched blend of family and human history.” Helen Gordon, author of Notes from Deep Time
Virginia Mendoza grew up in La Mancha, Spain, the driest region in Europe. Her parents, grandparents, and almost every word, tool, and tradition of her homeland conveyed one conviction: without water, there is no life; without water, there is no civilization. From flows of migration, agriculture and pagan rain gods to contemporary struggles with drought and climate change, her hybrid of essay, historical anthropology and memoir is a gripping and inventive history of humankind as driven and united by one force: thirst.
After living in dry Spain, humid Spain, semi-desert Spain and Armenia (in the Caucasus), Virginia Mendoza currently resides in a town in Teruel that is always in need of water. She has published books on roots and uprooting in which she fuses narrative journalism and rural anthropology, such as Quién te cerrará los ojos , Heridas del viento , and Detendrán mi río . In 2019 she won the Manuel Iradier Prize for Communication, awarded by the La Exploradora Geographic Society.