This 2025 novel by German author Tim Staffel centers on the geopolitical and commercial exploitation of water, in times where fresh water is getting scarce as climate changes, glaciers melt, and aquifers get depleted. The protagonist, who has a fear of water, is a world wide activist on the human right to potable water, exposing the machinations of those who see profit in gatekeeping water. The German village he was born in and left to never return becomes the center of the mechanisms of oppression and water poverty. So he does return. Wasserspiel means water game. I came across this book when browsing the Dussmann bookstore in Berlin last October.

While interesting and entertaining, the story never really sucked me in. I kept reading while hovering above it.

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