Our Wives Under the Sea

In Julia Armfield's "Our Wives Under the Sea," the profound and unsettling aftermath of a deep-sea expedition unfolds through the eyes of Miri, whose wife, Leah, returns irrevocably altered. Months after her submarine sank to the ocean floor, marine biologist Leah resurfaces, but the woman who comes home is a shadow of her former self—distant, barely eating, and consumed by an inexplicable, ritualistic need for water. As Leah retreats further into a world of her own making, Miri grapples with the terrifying realization that her wife has brought something back with her from the abyss, something that is slowly but surely transforming her. Miri's desperate quest for answers plunges her into Leah's fragmented memories and the chilling unknown of what transpired beneath the waves. This haunting novel explores the corrosive power of grief, the mysteries of intimacy, and the terrifying possibility of loving someone as they become something entirely alien, challenging the boundaries of love and identity against a backdrop of cosmic horror and profound melancholic beauty.