Sailors Can't Swim

By Dominique Scali

On the island of Ys, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, safety lies behind the city's high walls - where citizens live in opulent security while the shore-dwellers below rebuild their ruined homes after each great tide.

Dana Poussin is an orphan - and a swimmer, a gift both rare and suspect on Ys. She was born to the sea but yearns for a life within the walls. Flowing between shore, city, and open sea, she navigates the rocky possibilities for women - from salter to thief to aristocrat to sailor's wife - learning to steer through the sexist and classist indignities of the calm before revolution.

Sailors Can't Swim is a squall of a novel: part bildungsroman, part maritime fairy tale, part history of an alternate eighteenth century. It reflects our own era, laying bare the meanness of meritocracy and arbitrariness of citizenship in a world where every possession, or privilege, belonged to someone else first.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1772017019
• ISBN13: 9781772017014
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Talonbooks
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"