Oprah Discusses "The Sweetness of Water” With Author Nathan Harris on Oprah’s Book Club
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When author Nathan Harris was younger, a teacher gave him a piece of advice that profoundly affected the now-29-year-old scribe: Imagine there's a cafeteria table filled with the writers who came before you, the ones you admire that made you pick up a pen in the first place. You want to take your seat with them, to share a meal with your idols, but they'll only let you stay if you can regale them with a story they've never heard before.
It is with this mindset that Harris came to write The Sweetness of Water, which was recently picked to be the 91st selection in Oprah's Book Club.
Now, in an enlightening interview for the latest episode of Apple TV+'s Oprah's Book Club, Oprah will sit down with Harris to discuss the book, along with some of his literary influences. In an exclusive clip from the episode, which you can watch above, Harris details how imagining himself in that aforementioned cafeteria—standing before a table filled with Toni Morrison, James McBride, and others—helped him shape a singular story that those formative authors hadn't heard before.
Apple TV+ subscribers can watch the full episode of Oprah’s Book Club for free starting Friday, July 23, on Apple TV+ at apple.co/-oprahbookclub.
Set in the fictional town of Old Ox, Georgia at the very end of the Civil War, Harris's powerful first novel centers on brothers Prentiss and Landry, who are at last leaving the plantation where they've spent their entire lives, and grappling with what will come next.
When she first announced the selection of the book, Oprah said: "As I read this masterful novel, I kept thinking—this young 29-year-old is a first-time author, so how did he do this?" She continued, "As the best writers can do, Nathan takes us back in time, and helps us to feel we are right there with Prentiss and Landry as they get their first taste of freedom. I rooted for them, and feared for them too."
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