Sea Wife by Amity Gaige

(Alfred A. Knopf, 2020; $27)

Familiar Caribbean cruising routes and a family’s sabbatical adventure are the setting for this novel about relationships, marriage, depression, abuse and survival. While these are challenging themes (it’s not a lighthearted read), the message is ultimately about the value of dialogue— timely!—and finding the inner strength to overcome adversity.

Sea Wife is also a page turner with dark foreshadowing of a crisis that unfolds scene by scene. While luring readers forward, common challenges facing new cruisers are surfaced: worrying about sailing skills (then finding sailing isn’t necessarily the hard part of cruising; even bigger obstacles await); bridging a relationship from shore to sea; the intensity of sharing a sailboat’s spaces together 24/7; facing fears (and realities) of disaster at sea. Some passages read like cautionary tales, others as joyful recollections of the best parts of cruising.

Realistically portraying the cruising life is difficult for even experienced sailors to accomplish. Yet Sea Wife resonates with the authenticity of a cruiser’s memoir. More than that, it is beautifully written. Sea Wife begs to be picked up again—not because it is absent the distraction of mangled nautical phrases, but for the sheer enjoyment of well-crafted language.