Cool Water

Lila prepares for her pregnant teenaged daughter's upcoming wedding, even though she knows that the union is doomed to fail. Vicki and Blaine Dolson, the parents of six young children and in dire financial straits, struggle just to get by. Lee, who was abandonded as a baby and raised by his "aunt" and "uncle", tries to carry on the family legacy after his aunt and uncle pass away. The foundation of Hank and Lynn Trass' marriage is threatened by one tiny piece of paper. Willard and his sister-in-law Marian continue to live under the same roof and run the local drive-in theatre despite the fact that Marian's husband, Ed, has passed away, and the two are heavily denying their growing feelings for one another. All of these characters, as well as more secondary ones, come to life under Dianne Warren's hand in the engrossing "Cool Water".

Regina resident Dianne Warren has won a Governor General's fiction prize for Cool Water, described by the jury as an “exquisitely constructed” novel about a small Saskatchewan town.
Warren, 50, is the author of several short story collections and plays. Her play Serpent in the Night Sky was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award for Drama in 1992. In 2004 she won the Marian Engel Award for a female writer in mid-career.