SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 WATERSTONES FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN ' S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 A moment is all it takes to shatter a family. The echoes last a lifetime. 'Ferociously smart and full of surprises' Eleanor Catton 'Engrossing. Full of brains and mystery' Telegraph One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father, Serk, take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town. Hours later, Louisa wakes on the beach, soaked to the skin. Her father is missing: presumably drowned. This sudden event shatters their small family.

As Louisa and her American mother return to the US, Serk's disappearance reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened that night slowly unravels. A Book of the Year for the Guardian , Time , New Yorker , Esquire , Vanity Fair , FT and Barack Obama 'Big, bold and surprising' Guardian 'Illuminates the buried secrets of the human heart' Oprah Daily 'Gorgeous. Almost impossibly heartbreaking' New York Magazine 'It will make your head spin in the best way' Dakota Johnson 'Endlessly dazzling' Vogue READERS LOVE FLASHLIGHT 'Compelling, fascinating, original. Read this book' 'Five stars. Heartbreaking' 'A beautifully written story of a family across decades' 'I loved it - the best read in years. Glorious' 'Absolutely brilliant'.