The young secretary of Traffic and Waterways Annet de Goede is brutally honest in her contact with her colleagues in parliament. She is convinced that the new policy that she advocates is the right way to go. In this she underestimates the resistance she evokes with her plans to give back land to the sea.

Fear and confusion are the outcome of her plans with the people who live in the land that is supposed to be flooded and repossessed by the sea. People like Bennie, who catches rats for a living, and his drinking father. Both of which can do well without politics at all, but not without the land that they live in. While Annets popularity soars with the next election coming soon, her family in the north of the Netherlands is being pressure by ruthless protesters.

No Sea But Water tells very lively about a pressing conflict that touches upon the self image of the Netherlands and leaves no one untouched. At the same time it is a beautiful ode to the unique Dutch landscape with its high skies and straight lines.

‘IJlander is one of the few Dutch authors who in his novels explores the (political) tensions in the ‘new’ Netherlands’ - De Telegraaf

‘No Sea But Water is a very Dutch novel about a very Dutch and actual theme.’ – Boekenkrant.com

‘It is a sharp novel with a clear view on modern politics and the wish to alter it. With a leading role for the landscape. I have read it with much pleasure.’ 
– Blokker Book Store