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The Spear Cuts Through Water

2022 fantasy novel by Simon Jimenez

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ115819114 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Spear Cuts Through Water is a 2022 fantasy novel by Filipino-American writer Simon Jimenez. The novel contains a frame story about a grandchild listening to stories of the Old Country; it also tells the story of two men who journey across the Old Country with a dying goddess. It is Jimenez's second novel. The novel received critical acclaim, winning the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel as well as the Crawford Award. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Ignyte Award and Ursula K. Le Guin Prize.

Plot

In a frame story, a grandmother (“lola”) tells stories of the Old Country to her grandchild. She tells a story about how the Moon and the Water were in love, and together they created the Inverted Theater. The grandchild visits the Inverted Theater in a dream. They are carrying a spear which is their family heirloom. The moonlit body, a child of the Water and the Moon, performs the following story for the grandchild and other visitors to the Theater.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Spear Cuts Through Water” as 2022 fantasy novel by Simon Jimenez. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Spear, Cuts and Water.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2022, 2023—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Spear, Cuts and Water providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Spear Cuts Through Water”, the useful work is to connect “2022 fantasy novel by Simon Jimenez” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q115819114. The first chronological checks are 2022 and 2023.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Spear Cuts Through Water”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Spear Cuts Through Water primary sources, The Spear Cuts Through Water archive and Spear research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Spear Cuts Through Water”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Spear Cuts Through Water” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.