What is your relationship to faith, and how did this shape the novel? From Miri’s Catholicism, Matteo and Leah’s atheism, to Jelka’s constant praying. Katie Tobin: One of the key themes throughout the novel is faith, or the lack of it. A refreshing take on queer fiction and horror, Armfield sat down with AnOther to discuss the book, her relationship with Catholicism, and her obsession with the sea. Miri, convinced that Leah has ‘come back wrong’, slowly comes to terms with a new kind of loss, in which the woman she once loved is now nothing but an empty vessel and the promise of a normal life is slowly slipping away. While Armfield’s novel certainly uses the ocean’s unknown as the perfect setting for psychological horror, Our Wives Under the Sea may be thought of more aptly as the portrait of a marriage breaking down. Memories of what they once shared are now just that, as Leah seems consumed by a strange affliction, an obsession with bathing, and is all-consumed by whatever happened below the waters. The expedition, which was only supposed to last three weeks, leaves Miri displaced with her grief as the wife she had presumed was dead has finally come home. The story takes place after Leah, a marine biologist, returns home from a five-month-long mission. But, as readers will quickly discover, Armfield’s portrayal of marital life gone askew after a disastrous deep-sea mission is as fluid in its genre as the ocean itself.
heart-slicing, cinematic.“A contemporary gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness”, reads Florence Welch’s review of Julia Armfield’s debut novel, Our Wives Under the Sea. 'Part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-clanging submarine thriller. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone. 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. To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. 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.
It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea. Our Wives Under The Sea is the huanting debut novel Julia Armfiled, the critically acclaimed author of S alt Slow. ‘A gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness’ - Florence Welch
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