Mother Waters (Lisa Nan Joo, Affirm Press)

Lisa Nan Joo’s debut, Mother Waters, is an atmospheric, quietly unsettling novel that explores ambition, grief, inheritance and the emotional legacies left by fathers. It shifts between thriller and literary fiction, with speculative elements that make it a compelling read.

Charlie is rebuilding her life after leaving an emotionally abusive marriage and returning to bioacoustics – listening to the orchestras of the ocean. Yet the sound she longs for the most is impossible: the voice of her father, who disappeared at sea on the SS Albatross when she was a child. Dexter, on the other hand, is the son of a billionaire, shaped by paternal legacy. When he uses his ailing father’s fortune to fund a research vessel into one of the world’s deepest ocean trenches, Charlie sees the expedition as both a professional opportunity and a chance to uncover what happened to her father. Their partnership forms the spine of the novel.

Nan Joo’s writing is at its best in the deep-sea passages, where the ocean becomes a source of beauty, danger and psychological pressure. It is clear that the ocean was never intended to be a mere backdrop, but rather a character in its own right. The scientific detail adds texture and credibility without slowing the pace, while the speculative elements add a haunting charge. At times, the novel’s many emotional threads compete for space, but Charlie’s grief and determined search for belonging keep the story anchored.

For fans of Charlotte McConaghy and Ruth Ozeki, or anyone drawn to literary fiction with a hint of the uncanny.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Emma Pei Yin is a British-born Hong Kong-Chinese writer, editor and author. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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