The Seas

by Samantha Hunt

Book Overview

Moored in a coastal fishing town so far north that the highways only run south, the unnamed narrator of The Seas is a misfit. She's often the subject of cruel local gossip. Her father, a sailor, walked into the ocean eleven years earlier and never returned, leaving his wife and daughter to keep a forlorn vigil. Surrounded by water and beckoned by the sea, she clings to what her father once told her: that she is a mermaid.

True to myth, she...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 194779356X
• ISBN13: 9781947793569
• Release Date: July 2019
• Publisher: Tin House Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.9" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

how to write a successful first novel

Of course, we all measure success in our own strange way. but by my reckoning Samantha Hunt should consider this book a win. If I were only to judge this work on the mood it invokes, I would still rate it a 5. As a matter of fact, I'll give it five stars on mood invocation alone. Ms. Hunt is a witchscribe. And THE SEAS is a potion. I will never forget the look on my own face as I finished this one. My mouth was agape and I found I'd lost control of salivary function and production. I'll need a fresh copy of this one. And Ms. Hunt, if you are listening, I've read all the reviews on this page. You just have to know that some readers are never going to "get it." It's not their fault, or yours. Most assuredly not yours. As for the rest of us, we would like to encourage you to write for us another one.

amazing

this is the best book i've read in a long while. a very quick read. i picked it up and couldnt put it down until i was finished.

A Mermaid's Tale From The Depths - Hauntingly Beautiful!

"The Seas'" narrator is nineteen, a waif-like girl who, unable to move from adolescence to womanhood, believes herself to be a mermaid. When she was eight years-old, her father walked into the sea, never to be seen again. She and her mother often sit on the beach, near the ocean's edge where his footprints were last seen, watching - waiting for him to return. Wet footprints appear to her in the oddest places, convincing her that he has come back. He had told her that she was a mermaid - a gift from the sea. After all these years, she still believes him and reasons that if her father is alive, then he must be a creature of the sea and that she, his daughter, must be the same. And like the mermaids in Hans Christian Andersen's tale, and Friedrich de La Motte Fouque's "Undine," our lost young protagonist loves a man and longs for him to return her intense affections. Unlike the fairy tales, however, one assumes she is not dependent on this man's love to gain a mortal soul. Jude, the man in question, is older, nearly twice her age. He returned from the Iraq War terribly changed, war-torn. After serving three years and seven months in the Army, he had decided to stay at the front a bit longer. He needed the money. He was finally evacuated for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and shipped back to the States. The bleak, Northeastern seaside town where they live has nothing to offer him, nor anyone else really. He doesn't own a fishing boat, which is the only way to make money in the tiny hamlet. Our mermaid is certain that Jude, now a hard drinking, womanizing sailor, is her prince. Jude, however, has problems of his own. Never having fully recovered from the traumas of battle, he believes the young woman is forbidden to him. She is like a critical war secret he has been prohibited to reveal. "Like if I say your name or if I touch you, I'd get court-martialed, found guilty, and executed." Ms. Hunt's narrative is sparse and somewhat random in nature, according to her protagonist's apparent whims. It almost reads like a personal journal, with chapter titles for each entry. A literary work, "The Seas" is hauntingly beautiful with lyrical, almost ethereal prose and filled with ocean imagery. An atmosphere of melancholy permeates, with mystical, fantastical elements. The young woman's angst, and the sorrows of her wounded warrior, wrench the heart. There is dark humor here also. "All mermaids do is swim around and kill sailors. Not a great job." The characters are brilliantly portrayed, including the grandfather who is obsessed with typesetting a dictionary. He gives his granddaughter words and definitions to ponder throughout, and the story is filled with typographical games. He discovers a word in a Russian English dictionary, "razbliuto." He says there is no English equivalent. "The word means, the feelings one retains for someone he once loved," he explains, and challenges his listeners to come up with an English one word meaning. When everyone fails, t

Brilliant

"The Seas" is a brilliant blend of fairy tale, dry wit, psychology & travel guide wrapped up like an exquisite poem. It is simultaneously hilarious and tragic. I recommend this smart, lingering story above any book I've read, ever.

A 21st Century Emily Bronte!

This is a remarkable novel. It's hard to believe that Samantha Hunt hasn't been writing novels for a long time, yet the (extremely attractive) woman on the bookjacket is clearly young. As I read this book, "Emily Bronte" kept creeping into my mind. The ocean is hardly a moor, but Ms. Hunt owns her piece of the world every bit as thorouhly as Bronte did. It's a haunting story, bound to end as it does, but full of surprises along the way. The (unnamed) woman at the center of the book is thoroughly sympathetic, even in her wildest flights of fancy. Any reader willing to suspend disbelief for the length of this book will be thoroughly rewarded.