The Sea & Us
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the Stella shortlisted author of Poum and Alexandre, this is a heartwarming novel about longing, absence and the people we unexpectedly come to love.
After many years spent living in Seoul, a young man called Harold drifts back to Australia and rents a room above a fish and chip shop called The Sea & Us. Who he meets and what he experiences there propels him to question his own yearnings and failings, and to fight for meaning and a sense of place that can only be reached by facing what is lost.
By turns electric, tender, and hopeful, The Sea & Us is a gem of literary imagination. Catherine de Saint Phalle brilliantly captures disparate characters and their common human desire for community and connection. Long after the last page closes, ‘we can hear the bell tinkle. Someone wants some fish and chips.’
'Mesmerising. Full of love and charm...beautifully written.' — Herald Sun
Customer Reviews
All at sea
Author
French. Moved to Australia 2003. Five published novels of which this is the latest. Her memoir Poum & Alexandre was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2017.
Plot
Late thirties Australian male has been living in Seoul for 18 years, teaching English, learning pottery from an old guy, and having an affair with old guy’s much younger wife, although he doesn’t know she’s his wife. Old guy is cool with it. Better that she boffs his homeboy Harold that all those random dudes she used to pick up in bars.
Harold is not cool with it and decides it’s time to go back to Oz, where he rents a room above the titular fish and chip shop in Fitzroy run by a feisty Irishwoman. He paints and redecorates, then decides he needs to persuade an old mate from Seoul to join him.
She’s a street prostitute named Marylou (not her real name) who likes old American movies and noir fiction and gets beaten up a fair bit. She’s in bad shape when she arrives. Harold and his Irish landlady nurse her back to health. Marylou talks him into re-establishing a relationship with his estranged Mum, who is Czech, then returns to Seoul without telling any one.
Characters
Multicultural cast sympathetically if not entirely convincingly drawn.
Prose
Crisp, good pace, lyrical. A short, satisfying read.
Bottom line
Not surprisingly, there’s a French “feel” about this, despite the absence of French characters.