'Outrageously good . . . An unforgettable book' - OLIVIA LAING

'Reverie and road-trip, Aqua succeeds in turning the Cadillac Desert and Land of Little Rain into something lush and unexpected . . . Chiara Barzini guides and dives through a wonderful and revelatory journey' - GEOFF DYER

In 1913, William Mulholland completed the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct - a 233-mile engineering masterpiece transporting water from the Owens Valley, across the desert, to a barren corner of California that would become the hub of filmmaking.

Over a hundred years later, award-winning Italian author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini traces the geography of the aqueduct, from its source, across the desert, to the city it helped create, all while confronting her personal history with the landscape.

From the 'fake' waters of the Universal Studios Jaws attraction to Salton Sea - California's largest lake and 'the only man-made mistake visible from space' - Aqua explores how water, and its absence, shaped both a modern landscape and the history of film.

A mixture of travel writing, philosophy, cultural history, and memoir, Aqua is an immensely entertaining and diverse exploration of water, film, dreams versus reality, and an empire on the brink of disaster.

Pages: 304, Dimensions: 14.1x14.1cm