SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 A moment is all it takes to shatter a family. The echoes last a lifetime... One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father, Serk, take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town. Hours later, Louisa wakes on the beach, soaked to the skin. Her father is missing: presumably drowned. This sudden event shatters their small family. As Louisa and her American mother return to the US, Serk's disappearance reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened that night slowly unravels. ‘Ferociously smart and full of surprises’ Eleanor Catton ‘A family epic… Engrossing’ Telegraph ‘Big, bold and surprising’ Guardian ‘Gorgeous... Almost impossibly heartbreaking’ New York Magazine ‘Illuminates the buried secrets of the human heart’ Oprah Daily © Susan Choi 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025