The 1964 Sava River flood sets in motion this literary thriller and then sweeps away everything before it. With Water, Spiderweb Nada Gasic cements her reputation as both a spellbinding author and a remarkable chronicler of the city she calls home: Zagreb, Croatia. An eccentric cast of marginalized characters, from a mentally ill man who channels the Virgin Mary to three sisters cast from a disfigured version of the Cinderella fairy tale, this novel is not so much about crimes committed but rather the questions around why these crimes are committed, on an individual level and on a societal level. In piecing together the clues that may or may not answer these questions, Gasic makes clear that we are the ones responsible for the circumstances that yield the deaths of the innocent.