On Such a Full Sea

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Watching a talented writer take risks is a pleasure of devoted reading, and this novel provides that and more. The author explores the oft-told tale of the desperate, betraying, lonely human heart in a highly provocative and deeply affecting story set in a shocking, future America. This narrative elevates the author’s elegance of prose and masterful storytelling, delving into themes of identity, culture, work, and love in a newly imagined world. In a long-declining America, society is strictly stratified by class, with abandoned urban neighborhoods transformed into highwalled labor colonies. The labor class, descendants of those brought over from environmentally ruined provincial China, find purpose in providing pristine produce and fish to elite charter villages surrounding their settlement. The story centers on Fan, a female fish-tank diver from the B-Mor settlement (formerly Baltimore), who embarks on a quest to find her mysteriously vanished love. Her journey takes her beyond the safety of B-Mor, through the anarchic Open Counties rife with crime and minimal governmental oversight, leading her to a distant charter village. Fan's adventure soon becomes legendary among those she leaves behind, changing the way readers perceive their own world.