Synopses & Reviews
In this hilarious novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet, a honeymooning couple makes friends with a marine biologist who discovers genuine mermaids in a coral reef--and who, the next night, apparently drowns in her hotel bathtub. As a resort chain swoops in to corner the market on mermaids, the newlyweds (opinionated, skeptical narrator Deb and handsome online gamer Chip, the world's friendliest man) join forces with other vacationers--including an ex-Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ--to protect the mermaids from the corporate "Venture of Marvels" that wants to turn their habitat into a theme park.
Review
"I laughed so hard all over town...leave it to Lydia Millet to capsize her human characters in aquamarine waters and upstage their honeymoon with mermaids. I am awed to know there's a mind like Millet's out there--she's a writer without limits, always surprising, always hilarious." Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove
Review
" makes brilliant comedy out of a honeymoon trip that veers from the absurd to the sublime and back again. Lydia Millet is a stone-cold genius." Wall Street Journal
Review
"[A] laser-focused satire... The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller... An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in." Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation
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"With equal parts calculated wryness and pleading earnestness, [Millet] delivers a thrilling piece of fabulist fiction." Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Review
"A hilarious genre-bender that strikes some serious chords." Jane Ciabattari
Review
"Suspenseful, philosophical, and tropical--the funniest you'll ever read on ecotourism and the wisest you'll ever read on mermaids." BBC.com
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"[A] deft satire... Millet ramps up the suspense." Natalie Beach O Magazine
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"Millet, with her keen sense of the absurd, brings the book to a surprising conclusion, and makes a point about corporate greed and the destruction of the environment without being heavy-handed." Moira Hodgson
Synopsis
Lydia Millet redefines "comedy of errors" in her genre-bending satire of a tropical honeymoon hijacked by mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries.
Synopsis
Mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries hijack a tropical vacation in this genre-bending sendup of the American honeymoon.
Synopsis
On the grounds of a Caribbean island resort, newlyweds Deb and Chip--our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband who's friendly to a fault--meet a marine biologist who says she's sighted mermaids in a coral reef.
About the Author
Lydia Millet is the author of twelve previous books of fiction. Her novel Ghost Lights was a New York Times Notable Book; its sequel Magnificence was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and Los Angeles Times Awards in fiction; and her story collection