At the start of her acclaimed 2014 novel Memory of Water, Finnish author Emmi Itäranta introduces readers to a world in turmoil. Because of human intervention that causes climate change, water is one of the most scarce and sacred assets. And because of the scarcity of water, the world has changed dramatically in countless ways. For instance, China has taken control of China. Additionally, the European Union has disbanded. Another union, called the Scandinavian Union, is created and is occupied by the dictatorial regime called New Qian. Beyond that, wars frequently break out over the water, a resource that is becoming more rare and difficult to obtain.
Memory of the Water follows a seventeen-year-old girl named Noria Kaitio who lives in a village with her father, who is the village's tea master. The tea master is responsible for safeguarding the location of the town's water reserves, reserves that continue to dwindle. Tea masters perhaps hold the most power of anyone in the new society in which water is exceptionally scarce. They also hold a number of secrets that they are unable to disclose to others.
Although she is still very young, Noria's father begins to develop a succession plan and starts to train his daughter how to be a tea master. Eventually, after her father's death, her father hopes that she will take the mantle from him and become their village's tea master.
One day, Noria's father dies in a rather tragic fashion and Noria becomes the tea master for their village. The death of her father shakes Noria (and their village) to their core. Over time, Noria begins to integrate into her new role and begins to earn the trust of her neighbors. But the army of the country Noria is in begins to watch her and her village more broadly after her father's death, worried that she will do something that they see as out of line.
This incursion by her country's army leaves Noria with a dilemma: will she continue her job and potentially risk life and limb? Or will she retreat to relative safety and leave her village and the job that she and her father had been involved with for much of their life? Ultimately, Noria decides to stay in the village and continue her job despite the obvious risks of doing so.
