Our Wives Under the Sea: A Novel [Paperback]

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (NPR,The Washington Post, Lit Hub,The Telegraph, Goodreads, Tor.com, them, and more)

A FINALIST for the LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD and GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD

A deeply strange and haunting novel in the best possible way&An impressive and exciting debut novel that may leave you thinking about your own relationships in a new light. NPR

Shocking&Achingly poetic&Sharp and beautiful as coral polyps&Armfield exercises an exquisiteeven sadisticsense of suspense. Ron Charles,The Washington Post

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 Seais an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us, and the love that compels us nevertheless toward one another.

Julia Armfieldis the author of the story collectionsalt slowand the novelOur Wives Under the Sea. Her work has been published inGranta, Lighthouse, Analog Magazine, Neon Magazine,andBest British Short Stories. She is the winner of theWhite ReviewShort Story Prize and a Pushcart Prize, and she was shortlisted for theSunday TimesYoung Writer of the Year Award in 2019. She lives and works in London.

A Best Book of the Year(N