Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is a novel about mothering, midwifery, wolves, post-apocalyptic feminism, gold, hope, hunger, Streatham, Cuba, pregnancy, theft, body hair, bicycles and peacocks being bastards. Truffles and lightning. Sex on boats. Being bold and being safe. It's about the porousness of the female bodily experience, the challenges of being an empiricist with a sample size of one, what's worth knowing and what's worth living and the necessity of irrationality. It's about an underachieving millennial, a retired midwife and an Irish Rastafarian who set out from London after the end of the world to cycle to a sanctuary in the southern Alps. And it's about the fact that the thing about the end of the world is that it happens all the time.

The novel has already garnered this advance praise:

'Bristling with energy, Gethan Dick’s Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is an original and vital perspective on much more than how a world ends: on how it begins.' -- Oana Aristide, author of Under the Blue

‘Gethan’s artistic eye for detail, her ability to connect the everyday with the existential, has resulted in an original and lyrical piece of work. Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is a compelling statement in these strange times, and unlike anything I’ve read in recent memory.’ – Johny Pitts, presenter of R4’s ‘A Good Read’ and author of Afropean

‘The spectrum of themes that interests Gethan is vast, generous, funny, resistant and alive.’ – Valérie Manteau, novelist and winner of the Prix Renaudot

‘Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night brings a much-needed new voice and energy to the post-apocalyptic novel. The world that Gethan creates is equally strange and familiar but always thought-provoking.’ – Jarred McGinnis, author of The Coward

'This is a genuinely striking debut. Gethan Dick tells her story with a visceral immediacy that keeps the pages turning and the reader locked in right to the end.' -- Mike McCormack, author of Solar Bones