Synopses & Reviews
★
An IndieNext Pick
A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries and The House in the Cerulean Sea.
E. is content with a solitary life in her extraordinary underwater home, until the discovery of a strange, beautiful creature outside her window prompts her to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
But when a mysterious seaquake destroys E.'s home, she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.'s sister Sophy and Henerey's brother, Vyerin, must piece together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind and learn what their siblings' disappearances might mean for life as they know it.
Review
“A shimmering, delicately crafted delight of a book, steeped in love for the wonder of nature and the vagaries of archival research. Readers looking for heartwarming romance and scholarly mystery against the backdrop of a wildly imaginative world will be charmed.”—H.G. Parry, author of The Magician’s Daughter
"With its gorgeous underwater setting and whimsical academic sensibility, A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a strange, epistolary wonder." —Mary McMyne, author of The Book of Gothel
"Cathrall spins a captivating tale of mystery and romance set in an enchanting underwater society in her wondrous debut...This poetic and emotional tale announces the arrival of a skilled storyteller."—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Sylvie Cathrall writes stories of hope and healing with healthy doses of wonder and whimsy. She holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few nineteenth-century letters (with great care). Sylvie married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea.