Under Water

'Compelling and heart wrenching, a remarkable debut' Claire Messud
A stunning and deeply moving literary debut of grief, loss and female friendship, set against the backdrop of two cataclysmic natural events.
When six-year-old Marissa loses her mother, she is taken by her father to live on a small Thai island in the Andaman Sea. There, she forms a deep friendship with Arielle and together they explore the fragile wonders of its forests, reefs, and beaches. Holding their breath for minutes at a time, they learn to dive into the deep, as effortlessly synchronized as the manta rays they come to know by name. Then, on Boxing Day 2004, when the Indian Ocean tsunami makes landfall, they are swept up by the first wave and separated.
Eight years later, Marissa is living in New York. She spends her days wandering through the city and her nights seeking solace in the beds of strangers. As the city prepares for a devastating storm, Marissa reflects on her past and learns how to sustain herself in a precarious world.
Under Water is a story about friendship and grief, but also ecological change and natural disasters. It is a meditation on loss, a tribute to our dying oceans and forests, and a love letter to the disappearing coral reefs.

About the author

Tara Menon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Harvard University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Nation, Paris Review and Public Books, where she co-edits the Literary Fiction section. Tara was born in India, grew up in Singapore, spent a decade in New York, and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 

Product details

• Authors: Tara Menon
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 12.03.2026
• EAN: 9781398549166
• ISBN: 978-1-398-54916-6
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; New York City, Phuket, FICTION / General, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Friendship, FICTION / Sea Stories, FICTION / Disaster, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Relating to early adulthood, Sea stories, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Relating to adolescence / teenage years, Indian Ocean, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, FICTION / Nature & the Environment, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Fiction based on or inspired by true events, Narrative theme: Journeys and voyages, Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Narrative theme: love / relationships