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    Under Water

    A Novel

    Author Tara Menon On Tour
    Look inside
    Hardcover
    $29.00 US
    | $39.99 CAN
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Riverhead Books
    On sale Mar 17, 2026 | 224 Pages | 9798217048311
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    An intense, atmospheric novel about the devastating power of friendship, set against the backdrop of two cataclysmic events.

    After Marissa loses her mother at six, the most intimate relationship of her life begins. Her marine biologist father, determined to channel his grief into completing his wife’s research, whisks her across the globe to Thailand. There she meets Arielle, and a fairytale friendship takes hold. During the week, the girls live at the resort owned by Arielle’s parents; on the weekends they join the tight-knit community of researchers on a nearby island. Together the girls discover the fragile wonders of its reefs, forests, and beaches. Together they learn to dive into the deep, holding their breath for minutes at a time, as effortlessly synchronized as the manta rays they come to know by name. Together they learn to swim their way out of danger. But then comes a wave Arielle can’t outpace, leaving Marissa gutted with loss. 

    Years later, Marissa is back in New York, adrift and haunted by the memory of her friend. Over the course of two fateful days, as another cataclysm approaches the city and the past comes flooding back, she discovers how to sustain herself in a precarious world.
    Praise for Under Water:

    “Stunning and complex; a book that admits no easy answers but also refuses to avoid the hard questions.”—Kirkus, STARRED review

    “Menon’s dynamic debut…is sure to pull at the reader’s heartstrings.” —Publishers Weekly

    "Tara Menon beautifully evokes the intensity of a young woman's lost friendship, and the extraordinary natural world - on land and in the ocean - in which that friendship was forged. Under Water, in equal measure compelling and heart wrenching, is a remarkable debut. " —Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History and The Emperor’s Children

    “Reading Under Water is like being under water: immersive and stirring, pellucid and mysterious, shot through with light and with shades, overwhelming and exquisite–in a word, sublime.” —Namwali Serpell, author of The Old Drift and The Furrows

    “A novel of remarkable delicacy and power, Under Water is about grief, friendship, home, and longing. Menon writes exquisite sentences, sensual and particular, each containing an entire world.”—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies
    © Sharona Jacobs
    Tara Menon was born in India, grew up in Singapore, spent a decade in New York, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she is an assistant professor of English at Harvard University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Nation and the Paris Review. View titles by Tara Menon

    About

    An intense, atmospheric novel about the devastating power of friendship, set against the backdrop of two cataclysmic events.

    After Marissa loses her mother at six, the most intimate relationship of her life begins. Her marine biologist father, determined to channel his grief into completing his wife’s research, whisks her across the globe to Thailand. There she meets Arielle, and a fairytale friendship takes hold. During the week, the girls live at the resort owned by Arielle’s parents; on the weekends they join the tight-knit community of researchers on a nearby island. Together the girls discover the fragile wonders of its reefs, forests, and beaches. Together they learn to dive into the deep, holding their breath for minutes at a time, as effortlessly synchronized as the manta rays they come to know by name. Together they learn to swim their way out of danger. But then comes a wave Arielle can’t outpace, leaving Marissa gutted with loss. 

    Years later, Marissa is back in New York, adrift and haunted by the memory of her friend. Over the course of two fateful days, as another cataclysm approaches the city and the past comes flooding back, she discovers how to sustain herself in a precarious world.

    Reviews

    Praise for Under Water:

    “Stunning and complex; a book that admits no easy answers but also refuses to avoid the hard questions.”—Kirkus, STARRED review

    “Menon’s dynamic debut…is sure to pull at the reader’s heartstrings.” —Publishers Weekly

    "Tara Menon beautifully evokes the intensity of a young woman's lost friendship, and the extraordinary natural world - on land and in the ocean - in which that friendship was forged. Under Water, in equal measure compelling and heart wrenching, is a remarkable debut. " —Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History and The Emperor’s Children

    “Reading Under Water is like being under water: immersive and stirring, pellucid and mysterious, shot through with light and with shades, overwhelming and exquisite–in a word, sublime.” —Namwali Serpell, author of The Old Drift and The Furrows

    “A novel of remarkable delicacy and power, Under Water is about grief, friendship, home, and longing. Menon writes exquisite sentences, sensual and particular, each containing an entire world.”—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition and Intimacies

    Author

    © Sharona Jacobs
    Tara Menon was born in India, grew up in Singapore, spent a decade in New York, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she is an assistant professor of English at Harvard University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Nation and the Paris Review. View titles by Tara Menon

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