Our April Ink & Drink book club choice was Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, which has been described as "'a gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness". Part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-wracking submarine thriller, Armfield's debut novel explores falling in love, loss, grief and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.
Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe.
It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp.
Memories of what they had before - the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers - only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone...
Let us help you discover the novel with our Ink & Drink questions:
The novel alternates between Leah’s and Miri’s perspectives. How are their styles of narration and worldviews similar and different? Were you more drawn to one than the other? How did the dual-voice structure affect your reading experience?
What do you make of Leah’s employer, the Centre for Marine Enquiry? What do you believe the true purpose of Leah’s mission was?
When Leah is under the sea, Miri frequents a website for women who role-play that their husbands are in outer space, as well as a website for people with missing family members. Why is Miri drawn to these websites? In what ways does her experience with Leah resemble those of the people on the websites? How does it diverge?
Before she goes out the escape hatch, Jelka is convinced she hears a voice speaking to her. After her death, Leah begins to hear it, too. How do you interpret the voice?
How do the transformations of both Leah and Miri's mother compare? How are these processes similar and how are they different? What do you think Armfield was aiming for in contrasting these two characters?
What did you think of the way Miri interacted with Leah's friends, her own friend Carmen, and Jelka's sister Juna? How were these relationships used as a contrast against her relationship with Leah?
Did you feel that the queer aspect of Miri and Leah's relationship was significant to the novel, or did you feel as though this wasn't a centre of interest in the story?
How is the idea of a 'sea lung' and the liminality fundamental to a seascape used in the novel to explore certain themes?
Miri struggles to describe her relationship with Leah: “loving is something we all do alone and through different sets of eyes. . . . It’s easy to understand why someone might love a person but far more difficult to push yourself down into that understanding” (pp. 48–49). Do you agree? How do you understand Miri and Leah’s marriage as described by each of them? How does it change over the course of the novel?
Do you think Miri made the right decision in releasing Leah into the sea at the end of the novel?
For our next Ink & Drink book club, held on Wednesday May 31 at 6.30pm, we will be reading Send Nudes by Saba Sams. We hope to see you there and if not look forward to sharing our questions with you soon!
About the book:
In ten dazzling stories, Saba Sams dives into the world of girlhood and immerses us in its contradictions and complexities: growing up too quickly, yet not quickly enough; taking possession of what one can, while being taken possession of; succumbing to societal pressure but also orchestrating that pressure. These young women are feral yet attentive, fierce yet vulnerable, exploited yet exploitative.
Threading between clubs at closing time, pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays, these unforgettable short stories deftly chart the treacherous terrain of growing up - of intense friendships, of ambivalent mothers, of uneasily blended families, and of learning to truly live in your own body.
With striking wit, originality and tenderness, Send Nudes celebrates the small victories in a world that tries to claim each young woman as its own.