Though the children of Yamacraw Island live less than two miles from the coast of South Carolina, they can't name the president or the ocean that surrounds them. Many can't sign their names. Most can't read or write-they're unable to reach their potential to grow and learn because they have been failed by their school district and handicapped by their poverty and isolation. But with the arrival of an eager young teacher, their prospects begin to brighten. Based on Pat Conroy's experiences teaching elementary school for a year on South Carolina's Daufuskie Island, The Water Is Wideis a revealing portrait of the inequalities of the American education system and a powerful story of the group of children that changed one man's life forever.

Pat Conroy is the New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs and seven novels, including The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, and The Lords of Discipline.Born the eldest of seven children in a rigidly disciplined military household, he attended the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. He briefly became a schoolteacher (which he chronicled in his memoir The Water Is Wide) before publishing his first novel, The Boo. Conroy lives on Fripp Island, South Carolina.