New Release Notes 07/12/22: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

“Julia Armfield is one of my favorite writers. Our Wives Under the Sea moves fluidly between horror story and love story, the gorgeous and the grotesque. A contemporary gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness.” —Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence + the Machine

Sapphic science fiction, with a mix of love story and horror story? Yes, please. The praise for this book has been stunning - from Kristen Arnett to Daisy Johnson to Sarah Waters, so many of our favorite writers are worshipping this book, and we can see why. A master craft of nuanced storytelling, this is a perfect read to get lost in.

Leah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.

By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us, and the love that compels us nevertheless toward one another. Fathomlessly inventive and original, Julia Armfield’s debut is a portrait of marriage as we’ve never seen it before.