Sea Change

For fans of Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea ‘Absolutely stunning . . . Full of longing, mystery, fear and hope. I loved this book to pieces!’ – Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face Ro is stuck. She’s just entered her thirties, she’s estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at an aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (mountain dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro’s only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro’s last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager. When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro has one last chance to come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an ever-changing world. ‘Utterly original‘ – Bryan Washington, author of Memorial ‘Sea Change stole my big weirdo heart‘ - Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl Review Absolutely stunning ... Full of longing, mystery, fear and hope. I loved this book to pieces! -- Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face Chung’s writing is masterful, and Sea Change is glorious -- Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot There are no limits to what Chung can do. Her prose is so immersively beautiful that at times I felt swept away in a wave, admiring from underwater, her scintillating refractions of light. -- Weike Wang, author of Chemistry Sea Change tugged at my heart and refused to let go. With tenderness and perceptiveness, Chung deftly navigates family, loss, friendship and the intricacies of love, especially for ourselves -- Elaine Hsieh Chou, author of Disorientation A wild blessing of a debut. Gina Chung’s curiosity, precision and grace have created a world both strange and recognizable, the kind of place you can find a version of yourself you did not know existed, and call her home. -- Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk With her debut, Chung has proven she is a true original, the rare kind of writer who can be simultaneously witty and deeply sensitive, confident and devastatingly vulnerable. -- Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl About the Author Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Catapult, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review and Idaho Review among others. She is also the author of the story collection Green Frog. Sea Change is her first novel.