Sea Wife

Amity Gaige, lecturer in English

(Knopf)

Gaige’s fourth novel tells the story of Michael and Juliet Partlow, who at the beginning of the book are living with their two children in suburban Connecticut. He is an unfulfilled businessman; she is a stay-at-home mother and a stalled Ph.D. poetry candidate suffering from depression. Fueled by visions of heroic self-sufficiency, Michael proposes taking the whole family aboard a boat and sailing for a year, and Juliet reluctantly agrees. On the journey, they experience moments of joy as well as frightening storms, mounting financial costs and increasing marital discord. Five months after the end of the voyage, the police arrive with questions about a missing person Michael owed money to, and the story takes a dramatic turn. Throughout, Gaige explores universal truths about marriage, motherhood and childhood trauma.