Wasser ist nie verkehrt und meistens sogar richtig gut.

“Wasser ist nie verkehrt und meistens sogar richtig gut.” is a practical saying about water that returns to Harry Hole as he drinks from a bathroom tap. Its significance lies in the way an ordinary family reminder surfaces in the aftermath of the mountain ordeal, connecting his present need for water with a remembered domestic routine involving Rakel and Oleg.

Wording and Use

The saying means that water is never a bad choice and is usually quite good. Harry recalls Rakel using it at meals when she wanted Oleg to finish his glass. In that setting, the phrase serves as gentle encouragement: it makes drinking water sound both sensible and beneficial rather than merely an instruction.

Harry’s Recollection

After waking with a headache in a mountain hotel in Ustaoset, Harry puts his head under the bathroom tap and drinks. The remembered words come to him as he does so. His use of the phrase echoes Rakel’s familiar appeal to Oleg, while the circumstances have changed: Harry is drinking directly from a tap after the events at the Hävasshütte, not finishing a glass at a meal.

Narrative Significance

The recollection gives a basic act of self-care a personal resonance without turning the saying into an explanation of the ordeal. A line once used in an everyday family moment accompanies Harry’s immediate physical need. Water is at once practical in the present and connected, through Rakel’s remembered words, to the ordinary life of the household.