'Ferociously smart and full of surprises' Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood

'Instantly bewitching' Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit From the Goon Squad

The astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, which takes them from post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned.

The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

'Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity' Raven Leilani, author of Luster

'A writer at the top of her game' Library Journal

'I couldn’t put it down, and once I finished, I couldn’t stop thinking about it' Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy

'An immersive, addictive story with an ending that made me gasp' Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls

"What’s sort of amazing is that a novel with such a locomotive of a plot ... could just as reasonably be described as character-driven ... Choi is a writer you can trust to make the journey worthwhile. Never sentimental, never predictable, this aptly titled novel illuminates dark passages both fictional and real" - Kirkus

"Proves she’s a writer at the top of her game, capable of crafting a well-plotted and complex story while remaining attuned to small internal motivations, along with intersectional and cultural liminalities, those edges between surf and sand where so much violence happens, as much to bodies as to hearts, minds, and homes" - Library Journal

"A major world writer... Choi has a profound gift" - New York Times

"What an outlandishly talented writer Choi is... Choi is a writer who can be trusted to have a plan, and she sews the narrative up with a conclusion that’s almost impossibly heartbreaking — about which the less said the better" - Vulture

"With Franzen-esque fastidiousness, Choi unpacks each character’s backstory, exposing vanities and delusions in a cool, caustic voice, a 21st century Émile Zola" - Los Angeles Times

"A historical events-driven door stopper that will leave readers guessing until (almost) the very end... A fictional reimagining of one of history’s darkest chapters and a sweeping, unsettling portrait of one family caught in the throes of change and torn apart by tragedy" - San Francisco Chronicle

"Choi’s elegant writing is evident in this ambitious tale ... A propulsive story about family secrets and displacement" - Boston Globe