Review: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
Our Wives Under The Sea is the haunting debut novel from Julia Armfield, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.
Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.
To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.
REVIEWED BY RUBY CONWAY, @NBMAGAZINE
We see Leah as if through water; her mind remains submerged, sunken somehow. She spends stretched out hours in the tub, listening to the white noise of the radio, drinking down salt water. At times, her body is watery, translucent, aquatic. Armfield plays with a bodily tension between land and sea to great effect.
The novel is divided into five parts that correspond with the layers of the ocean depth and its vertical zones: sunlight, twilight, midnight, abyssal, hadal. The narrative interchanges between Leah and Miri’s perspective; Leah’s is a journal account of her time in the murky depths, Miri’s is present day, grappling with her loss and the immeasurable distance between herself and her wife. She recounts the details that made up their marriage, the ordinary extraordinariness of a long-term relationship, the small moments and habits that are both comforting and deeply romantic.
Above all else, this debut is a feat of imagery and lyrical syntax. Language ebbs and flows, both watery and full of depth, almost tidal in its movements. Armfield conjures the otherworldly and unknowable quality of the dark depths of the ocean with skill, inspiring in readers a curiosity for marine worlds they probably didn’t know they had. She blends genres: horror, romance, science fiction, travel narrative, in a unique and daring way. This uncanny sea voyage is a bold work that deserves praise.