Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Our Wives Under the Sea cover art

Our Wives Under the Sea

By: Julia Armfield
Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £9.99

Buy Now for £9.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Boy Parts cover art
A Certain Hunger cover art
Six of Crows cover art
Come with Me cover art
The Time Traveler's Wife cover art
The Shape of Water cover art
Murmuration cover art
The Silence cover art
Blackwater: The Complete Saga cover art

Summary

Named as a book to look out for in 2022 by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.

Our Wives Under the Sea is the debut novel from 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. It soon becomes clear, though, 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.

To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. 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 realise that the life that they had might be gone.

©2022 Julia Armfield (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

Critic reviews

Julia Armfield is one of my favourite writers, Our Wives Under The Sea moves fluidly between horror story and love story, the gorgeous and the grotesque. A contemporary gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness. (Florence Welch)
Julia Armfield’s weird and wonderful debut feels fresh (or rather, salty) . . . You hear a lot of people lamenting the death of innovation in contemporary fiction . . . and Armfield is a brilliant counterpoint. (Susie Goldsbrough and Robbie Millen)
A wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange. I loved this book. (Sarah Waters)

More from the same

What listeners say about Our Wives Under the Sea

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    183
  • 4 Stars
    113
  • 3 Stars
    50
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    9
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    220
  • 4 Stars
    74
  • 3 Stars
    23
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    154
  • 4 Stars
    93
  • 3 Stars
    51
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    10

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

To me, this is about relationships.

**Spoilers (just in case)

When they end, we can't always say how or why. We aren't always given easy answers. Just a lot of experiences to think back on, in the personal way of memories.

There are concrete moments we can point to, the things we do and say, but that's external.

Ultimately we come to terms with ourselves and move on. Or else stay down there and change until we're different enough to surface.

I don't know that this helps as a review exactly. But having finished just minutes ago, it hopefully shows that this isn't a book that floats. It made me think and feel. That, to me, is enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Quietly shattering

Although this magical realism / horror is obviously not directly relatable the responses and lives of the couple are. One can imagine the ‘horror’ to have been mental illness, or a crime or accident and the responses seem very realistic to me - as is a sense of perhaps , frustration? Not total adoration of them but a more measured response?

I know I will listen to this again. It’s not horrific - or thrilling - I cannot remember which genre this was trying to be slotted into - there though it’s claustrophobic and sad . It is dark though, dark, slow and claustrophobic. And very good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Left me wanting, just not more. Spoiler free

I hesitate to write reviews because I write too and I don’t want to upset the author but you have to be honest.

However I didn’t enjoy this book, and I have to be honest about that. For me it was a middle of the road situation.

It has some gorgeous quotable language but it reads almost like someone that’s trying to hard to insert descriptions of things just for the sake of a good quote, not to advance the story or particularly make you feel anything.

I finished this book with the thought of why did it end like that? But not in the omg I need a sequel kind of way, instead in the why did I go through all that only to still not understand what happened at the end.

I’m usually a fan of mysteries thrillers romance and fantasy. So this book caught my eye aswell as THE Florence and the machine recommending it. Like? Come on I couldn’t resist.

I guess me and her don’t share book taste.

I’d give this 1 stars but frankly I can recognise when a book might not be for me but instead is for other people who read this kind of book and want more.

So desperately I wanted to love this book. It felt like anytime there was promise to the story it wanted. Especially the end, I expected a different vibe there than I received.

The writer made both characters say they were similar at the start and she isn’t wrong they both sound so similar in voice that sometimes I forgot who’s part is was.

Overall I’m glad people enjoy it, I wish it was my cup of tea as they say but sadly it wasn’t. However I’d probably read another Julia Armfield book, should one arise more to my taste profile.

Now comes the spoiler filled part so look away:

Leah comes back from the sea and by the end of the book we still don’t know what went on. Did the monster she seen take them there and if so why and what was it and why did she turn into the sea in the end my god that was confusing? I thought Mari was going to drown Leah and that would be the ending because she belonged to the sea. That would have shocked and saddened me and made me feel something.

This book left me not wanting to continue about 7 chapters in. The words and descriptions are beautiful but the flesh of the story didn’t feel cared for enough. The characters weren’t different enough for it to be discernible.

The whole fake husbands lost in space was both a useless addition but also something that If used better could have provided more.

She talks about friends who’s names I can’t remember because she seemed to not flesh them out enough for me to care for them.

There’s a lot of repetition but not in the way I’d expect like repeatedly discussing the previous mission Leah had been on and the other lady who told her about a tv show and how Mari didn’t believe in the crafts safety.

Mari seemed to have a strange Dom thing going on with Leah in some descriptions and it kinda creeped me out not because I’m against that I think it’s hot it done right but it felt like the author was trying too hard to add spice and all she could think of was the Dom vibe which to me didn’t match either of their personalities.

Basically I wasn’t a fan but some people might just enjoy it for what it is,

A romantic eerie book with lots of ocean facts and descriptions that felt unnecessary to me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful, sad and strange

I wholeheartedly loved this. If you’re looking for a story with lots of action or a fast moving plot this is 100% not that. It’s a character driven story with a melancholy and mysterious atmosphere. If that sounds like your thing then dive in!

Beautifully written and read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

⭐️women⭐️

I’ve no idea what just happened but I enjoyed every second - love women and the sea

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Prescient considering recent submersible tragedy

Prescient considering recent submersible tragedy that left five people under the sea.
I loved the slow knowledge that her wife would return to water mixed with the ebb andd flow of the bones of their relationship

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

??

I haven’t got a clue of what going on in this book, it’s so strange & I really wish they would of given us some sort of explanation about why or what happened.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Just awful

Boring, strange and as it turned out totally unbelievable. Someone recommended it for our book club and all seven of us had nothing good to say about it. I gave up half way through and normally I soldier on no matter.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

very bizarre

so this is something I would recommend because its strange but don't expect a tidy ending. Its not scary, gripping or heart gripping it's just alright. Worth a listen don't get me wrong but it's not pure gold. I would recommend other books for that.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Take me down to the sea

Picked this up on a whim based on it title and blurb and I have to say it is an extra ordinary book. Every word and turn of phrase bleeds with emotion, splitting between laughter and sorrow. I have pre-ordered Julia's next novel and i can`t wait.

The performance is brilliant, the two ladies do a excellent job and made me feel every word.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!