Julia Armfield is the author of the story collection salt slow and the novel Our Wives Under the Sea. Her work has been published in Granta, Lighthouse, Analog Magazine, Neon Magazine, and Best British Short Stories. She is the winner of the White Review Short Story Prize and a Pushcart Prize, and she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2019. She lives and works in London.
A Best Book of the Year (NPR, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, The
Telegraph, Goodreads, Tor.com, them, and more) A Lambda Literary
Award Finalist for Lesbian Fiction A Goodreads Choice Award
Finalist A Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlistee
"Shocking...Achingly poetic...Sharp and beautiful as coral
polyps...Armfield exercises an exquisite--even sadistic--sense of
suspense. She's cleverly designed this story so that we only
gradually become aware of how little we know. 'Panic is a misuse of
oxygen, ' Leah warns, but by the climax of this eerie novel, I was
misusing it with abandon."
--Ron Charles, The Washington Post "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
"A haunting, evocative novel that juxtaposes the horrors beneath
the waves with the life and love that exist on land."
--TIME "Armfield uses this mysterious setup to explore anticipatory
grief and the limits of human understanding, and I was a little
changed after reading Our Wives Under the Sea, too."
--The New York Times "Sublimely gorgeous...Readers are treated to a
stunning love story about a couple trying to make sense of their
new unfamiliar situation, while also learning about what happened
to Leah on the ocean floor. It's pretty much perfect."
--Liberty Hardy, BookRiot "Hypnotic...Gripped me from the first
chapter...Armfield is unafraid to deal with uncomfortable issues,
asking readers how much it's possible to ever really know someone,
no matter how long you've been with them. I savored each delicious
sentence of Our Wives Under the Sea, underlining passages on almost
every page, and genuinely missed the characters when it ended."
--BuzzFeed "Armfield has written a novel so chock-full of stunning
sentences that that urge to scream needled its way into me
throughout my first and second reads of the book...It isn't an
obvious monster novel, but I consider it a monster novel in its own
way. A deeply queer one, a deeply romantic one."
--Autostraddle "Original and haunting."
--People Magazine (Best New Books) "If you're in the mood to cry,
then Julia Armfield wrote the perfect book for ya... Armfield
breaks your heart over and over (but in a good way, promise)."
--Cosmopolitan "A love story like no other...Armfield's fantastic
first novel is about the pockets of unknowability that pop up in
even the longest intimacies, how marriage, like the ocean, is full
of 'the teeth it keeps half-hidden.'"
--Electric Literature "Eerie and wonderful...A tender love
story...A strange, sad, funny, ethereal book. Its final act is
achingly beautiful and utterly terrifying. I still don't quite know
what to make of Our Wives Under the Sea, but I can't stop thinking
about it."
--Lit Hub "Armfield's gorgeous prose weaves a strangely romantic
tale of love and loss that might just leave you viewing your own
relationships differently."
--them "One of my favorites of this (and any other) year...Funny,
wise, and often devastating."
--Tor.com "[Armfield's] insights into the grieving process
sometimes stop you in your tracks...Moving and evocative...Kept me
turning the pages. Armfield has a deep feel for language...The
final scene in Miri's narrative absolutely floored me...It moves me
to tears just thinking about it now."
--Washington Independent Review of Books "[A] masterpiece...Deeply
romantic and devastating."
--Refinery29 "Engrossing...Armfield's tale is a blissfully strange,
poetically written, fantastical voyage into a relationship."--Bay
Area Reporter "Captivating and at times heartbreaking."
--SheReads "A moody and intimate debut novel, both a portrait of a
marriage and a subtle horror fantasy...With echoes of Jules Verne,
Thor Heyerdahl, H.P. Lovecraft, and the film Altered States,
Armfield anchors the shudder-producing tale in authentic marine
science and a deep understanding of human nature. This is
mesmerizing."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "What happens to a marriage
when one spouse is no longer the person you married?...Launching
her book with epigraphs from both Moby-Dick and Jaws, Armfield
guides the reader through the liminal spaces in the couple's lives
and approaches them with an occasionally ironic humor. The bleakest
horror story can also be a love story; Armfield deftly illustrates
how."
--Kirkus (starred review) "Without a doubt, Our Wives Under the Sea
is one of the best books I've ever read. It's not only art, it's a
perfect miracle. We are lucky for it."
--Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things "A
wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange. I loved
this book."
--Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet "I was entirely
captivated by this book. A gorgeous debut."
--Jami Attenberg, author of I Came All This Way to Meet You and The
Middlesteins "Beautiful, otherworldly, like floating through water
with your eyes open."
--Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters and Everything Under "Julia
Armfield is one of my favorite writers. Our Wives Under the Sea is
a contemporary gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness."
--Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence + the Machine "This
phenomenal book is a marriage tale unlike any other. Thrilling,
funny and exquisitely crafted, this book will make you question
everything while it keeps you up all night turning its pages."
--Danielle Lazarin, author of Back Talk "A strange, unnerving novel
that wrongfoots you at every turn and invites you to think again
about loss, absence, and transformation. A lyrically written
elegy."
--Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others "Tender, strange,
lucid, and so assured. If you love sci-fi or love stories or books
that defy labels or chew-your-arm-off good writing, this is for
you."
--Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies "Spooky and
romantic: a gorgeous novel that gets under your skin. Armfield
leads you softly through a story that feels epic and intimate at
the same time."
--Sarvat Hasin, author of The Giant Dark "Delicate and horrifying,
Our Wives Under The Sea is a darkly brilliant novel that submerges
the reader's imagination in the depths of the unknown."
--Megan Hunter, author of The Harpy "Reading this book is like
diving into the deepest depths of the ocean and finding beautiful
and disturbing wonders."
--Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark
Ask a Question About this Product More... |