This book is amazing. It tells of the authors search for and study of water in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts. A spare, almost zen-like tale of his physical and spiritual quest for water where it shouldn't be, and the Old Ones who knew about it.
It ranges from ephemeral pools and tinajas, in a chapter called "Water that waits" to scenes in a chapter called "Fear of God" of crawling into (literally) a huge river gushing from the side of a cliff. Childs goes, often solo, into some of the driest and most forbidding places in the Southwest in his search - sometimes beyond the pale of reason. A back country and technical climbing expert, he gets into (sometimes purposefully) amazing situations where we safe and comfortable trekkers are taught not to tread. Along the way he drops, like bread crumbs, tiny hints and secrets of hiking the desert of benefit to us all.
An outstanding read and one that you will always remember when hiking in the desert.