Above Us the Sea

‘Brimming with a love of language and sidestepping clichés, this confident debut movingly explores the in-betweenness of migrant identity and the sense of loss that accompanied that divisive, life-altering referendum. Ania Card is a writer to watch.’ - Polis Loizou, author of A Good Year ‘Above Us The Sea shows how we can be made and remade, translated and retranslated - for better and for worse - in the eyes and arms of others.’ - Jen Calleja, author of Vehicle ‘Toni, whose visions of the sea haunt her as she strives to create a meaningful life for herself, vibrant Gav, and intense Karol will stick with me for a long time… Card captures the atmosphere of a particular moment in British history, and the lives of people who are scapegoated and alienated by two different countries, and blossoming in the gap between them.’ - Rachel Dawson, author of Neon Roses It`s after a night in Cardiff`s loudest gay bar that Toni first lays eyes on Gav, a retired Welsh boxer, and his boyfriend Karol, an aspiring Polish photographer. The trio soon fall into an intimate, ambiguous love triangle. After a tragic event at a beach in Swansea, the trio are ripped apart, and Toni escapes to London, becoming caught between a convenient, loveless relationship and an illicit, lustful affair. Lost halfway between the British future she has always wanted, and the Eastern European past she has been running from, Toni can only wonder where and with whom she really belongs. Above Us The Sea is an ode to the tangled remains of lost loves and the imprints left by grieving souls, yearning for connection. This is a story of aching and emerging, intimacy and distance, set against an increasingly hostile landscape.