Julia Armfield – författare

Winner of the Polari PrizeShortlisted for the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize‘A gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness’ – Florence WelchOur Wives Under The Sea is the haunting novel from Julia Armfield, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. But it soon becomes clear that Leah may have come back wrong. 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.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. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.'A wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange' – Sarah Waters, author of Fingersmith'Part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-clanging submarine thriller' – The Times

In her brilliantly inventive and haunting debut collection of stories, Julia Armfield explores the body, mapping the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.'Wickedly clever prose and a sense of humour that seems to loom up like a character in itself' – M John Harrison, GuardianTeenagers develop ungodly appetites, a city becomes insomniac overnight, and bodies are diligently picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sleepy sea-side towns are invaded and transformed, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to its inhabitants.Blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, Salt Slow considers characters in motion – turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new entirely.Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize, Armfield is a writer of sharp, lyrical prose and tilting dark humour.'Salt Slow is exemplary. A distinct new gothic, melancholy, powerful and poised.' – China Miéville, author of The City & The City'The stories in this collection look at women’s bodies and their experiences in society with an eerie, otherworldly lense . . . For fans of Carmen Maria Machado, Sophie Mackintosh and Megan Hunter' –Elle

'Brilliantly audacious' GUARDIAN 'Stunning'DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK ‘Hauntingly good’ iNEWS ’A must read’ GLAMOUR 'Brilliant, original’ KALIANE BRADLEY'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEER'Elegant, evocative' CLAIRE FULLER'Extraordinary, unsettling' JACQUELINE WILSON From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. A Book of the Year in the Guardian and Dazed ‘Armfield writes so gracefully’ THE TIMES ‘Evocative yet grounded’OBSERVER ‘A chilling vision of a future capital that I’ve found impossible to shake’INEWS ‘Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope … Deeply, passionately, messily human’ PAUL TREMBLAY‘A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ ALICE SLATER‘Every page guillotines you with its wisdom’ TOM BENN Longlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize

'Brilliantly audacious' GUARDIAN 'Stunning'DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK ‘Hauntingly good’ iNEWS ’A must read’ GLAMOUR 'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEER From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. A Book of the Year in the Guardian and Dazed ‘Armfield writes so gracefully’ THE TIMES ‘Evocative yet grounded’OBSERVER ‘A chilling vision of a future capital that I’ve found impossible to shake’INEWS ‘Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope … Deeply, passionately, messily human’ PAUL TREMBLAY‘A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ ALICE SLATER‘Every page guillotines you with its wisdom’ TOM BENN Longlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize

'Brilliantly audacious' GUARDIAN 'Stunning'DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK ‘Hauntingly good’ iNEWS ’A must read’ GLAMOUR 'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEER From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. ‘Armfield writes so gracefully’ THE TIMES ‘Evocative yet grounded’OBSERVER ‘A chilling vision of a future capital that I’ve found impossible to shake’INEWS ‘Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope … Deeply, passionately, messily human’ PAUL TREMBLAY‘A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ ALICE SLATER‘Brilliant, original … an era-defining writer’ KALIANE BRADLEY‘Every page guillotines you with its wisdom’ TOM BENN Longlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize A Book of the Year pick in the Guardian