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book: Jacob's Well
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Jacob's Well

A Novel
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2014

About this book

Originally published in 1984, Stephen Harrigan’s passionate, emotionally intense second novel takes readers deep into the mysterious passageways of a Central Texas aquifer—and of the human heart. This edition includes a new afterword by the author.

Author / Editor information

Stephen Harrigan is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including the award-winning novels The Gates of the Alamo and Remember Ben Clayton, the critically acclaimed essay collection The Eye of the Mammoth, and Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. He lives in Austin, Texas, where he is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a faculty fellow at the University of Texas’s Michener Center for Writers.

Reviews

Stephen Harrigan makes every page of his book seem new . . . When Sam, Libby, and Rick make their climactic dive into the well’s nether passages, the suspense functions on several levels at once. Will they come out alive? How is the triangle going to resolve itself? Can the novelist succeed in fusing his several strands of plot and character with a single blaze of action?
 My conscience won’t let me answer the first two questions in the presence of anyone inclined to read the book, but I have no qualms about the third: yes, indeed.
— Washington Post

The suspense is as pressurized as the atmosphere 150 feet below the surface. Jacob’s Well delivers satisfaction from beginning to end. The action sequences are authentic and taut. The love affairs and the nuances of emotion between the three protagonists ring painfully true.
— St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Jacob’s Well is one of the finest novels to be written in Texas in the last ten years. Exquisitely painful at times, Stephen Harrigan’s second novel is also deeply humane—a thoughtful and thought-provoking story of how three individuals make peace with themselves, each other, and the world around them.
— San Antonio Express-News

A significant work by an author whose talents, like the depths of Jacob’s Well itself, seem limitless.
— United Press International

An emotionally resonant novel.
— Newsweek

At times deeply moving and wise, this novel reveals Harrigan’s increasing maturity as a novelist.
— Publishers Weekly

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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  • Publicly Available

    AUTHOR'S NOTE

    vi
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    Chapter 1

    5
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    Chapter 2

    22
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    Chapter 3

    35
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    Chapter 4

    43
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    Chapter 5

    51
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    Chapter 6

    68
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    Chapter 7

    88
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    Chapter 8

    95
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    Chapter 9

    109
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    Chapter 10

    121
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    Chapter 11

    132
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    Chapter 12

    139
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    Chapter 13

    147
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    Chapter 14

    159
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    Chapter 15

    166
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    Chapter 16

    169
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    Chapter 17

    175
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    Chapter 18

    183
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    Chapter 19

    191
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    Chapter 20

    199
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    Chapter 21

    213
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    Chapter 22

    221
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    Chapter 23

    224
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    Chapter 24

    231
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    Chapter 25

    237
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    Chapter 26

    243
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    Chapter 27

    251
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    Chapter 28

    255
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    Chapter 29

    261
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    Chapter 30

    269
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    Chapter 31

    279
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    Chapter 32

    285
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    Afterword

    287
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 12, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780292760745
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.7560/758155
eBook ISBN: 9780292760745
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
Downloaded on 8.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7560/758155/html
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