{"product_id":"the-deeper-the-water-the-uglier-the-fish","title":"The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish","description":"\u003cp\u003e*2018 \u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e Book Prize Finalist\u003cbr\u003e*Longlisted for The Crook's Corner Book Prize \u003cbr\u003e*Longlisted for the 2019 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award\u003cbr\u003e*Shortlisted for the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for Fiction\u003cbr\u003e*A Best Book of 2018 \u003cem\u003e--Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBuzzFeed News\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e Entropy\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLitReactor\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e LitHub\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e*\u003cem\u003e35 Over 35 Award\u003c\/em\u003e 2018\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e*One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Fall --\u003cem\u003eVulture\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHarper's BAZAAR\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBuzzFeed News\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBustle\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eFast Company\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's 16-year-old Edie who finds their mother Marianne dangling in the living room from an old jump rope, puddle of urine on the floor, barely alive. Upstairs, 14-year-old Mae had fallen into one of her trances, often a result of feeling too closely attuned to her mother's dark moods. After Marianne is unwillingly admitted to a mental hospital, Edie and Mae are forced to move from their childhood home in Louisiana to New York to live with their estranged father, Dennis, a former civil rights activist and literary figure on the other side of success.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe girls, grieving and homesick, are at first wary of their father's affection, but soon Mae and Edie's close relationship begins to fall apart--Edie remains fiercely loyal to Marianne, convinced that Dennis is responsible for her mother's downfall, while Mae, suffocated by her striking resemblances to her mother, feels pulled toward their father. The girls move in increasingly opposing and destructive directions as they struggle to cope with outsized pain, and as the history of Dennis and Marianne's romantic past clicks into focus, the family fractures further.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving through a selection of first-person accounts and written with a sinister sense of humor, \u003ci\u003eThe Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish\u003c\/i\u003e powerfully captures the quiet torment of two sisters craving the attention of a parent they can't, and shouldn't, have to themselves. In this captivating debut, Katya Apekina disquietingly crooks the lines between fact and fantasy, between escape and freedom, and between love and obsession.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The structure, characters and storyline are all refreshingly original, and the writing is nothing short of gorgeous. It's a stunningly accomplished book, and Apekina isn't afraid to grab her readers by the hand and take them to some very dark and very beautiful places.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Michael Schaub, NPR\u003c\/p\u003e\r","brand":"Katya Apekina","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44442084868332,"sku":"9781937512750","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781937512750.jpg?v=1708837805","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/the-deeper-the-water-the-uglier-the-fish","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}