Tides by Freeman, Sara

"Brilliant, elegant, and unsparing." --Emma Cline "[S]tarkly beautiful." -- WBUR"Enchanting." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)An intoxicating, compact debut novel by the winner of Columbia's Henfield Prize, Tides is an astoundingly powerful portrait of a deeply unpredictable woman who walks out of her life and washes up in a seaside town.

After a sudden, devastating loss, Mara flees her family and ends up adrift in a wealthy seaside town with a dead cellphone and barely any money. Mired in her grief, Mara detaches from the outside world and spends her days of self-imposed exile scrounging for food and swimming in the night ocean. In her state of emotional extremis, the sea at the town's edge is rendered bleak, luminous, implacable.

As her money runs out and tourist season comes to a close, Mara finds a job at the local wine store. There, she meets Simon, the shop's soft-spoken, lonely owner. Confronted with the possibility of connection with Simon and the slow return of her desires and appetites, the reasons for her flight begin to emerge.

Reminiscent of works by Rachel Cusk, Jenny Offill, and Marguerite Duras, Tides is a spare, visceral debut novel about the nature of selfhood, intimacy, and the private narratives that shape our lives. A shattering and unforgettable debut.

Author: Sara Freeman
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 01/16/2022
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.40h x 4.90w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780802159175
Award: Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards - Gold Medal Winner

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2021 pg. 9
Publishers Weekly 10/25/2021
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2021
Booklist 11/01/2021 pg. 45
Shelf Awareness 01/18/2022

About the Author

Sara Freeman is a Montreal-born writer currently based out of Boston. She graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in Fiction in 2013. At Columbia, she won the Henfield Prize for the best piece of short fiction by a graduate student. Her work has previously been published in a number of literary magazines.