A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize
"Lungfish is a force of nature—a deeply felt marvel of a book that navigates grief, parenthood, and the mysteries of family with unrelenting power and precision. Here is a story about the islands we build and carry with us. Here is storytelling at its best." —Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters and Run Me to Earth
Tuck is slow to understand the circumstances that have driven her family to an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine, the former home of her deceased grandmother where she once spent her childhood summers. Squatting there now, she must care for her spirited young daughter and scrape together enough money to leave before winter arrives—or before they are found out.
Relying on the island for sustenance and answers—bladderwrack, rosehips, tenacious little green crabs; smells held by the damp walls of the house, field guides and religious texts, a failed invention left behind by her missing father—Tuck lives moment-by-moment through the absurdity, beauty, paranoia, and hunger that shoots through her life, as her husband struggles to detox.
Exquisitely written and formally daring, Lungfish tells the story of a woman grappling through the lies she has been told—and those she has told herself—to arrive at the truth of who she is and where she must go. Meghan Gilliss’s debut is a brilliant and heartbreaking novel about addiction, doubt, marriage, motherhood, and learning to see in the dark.
Genre: General Fiction
Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize
"Lungfish is a force of nature—a deeply felt marvel of a book that navigates grief, parenthood, and the mysteries of family with unrelenting power and precision. Here is a story about the islands we build and carry with us. Here is storytelling at its best." —Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters and Run Me to Earth
Tuck is slow to understand the circumstances that have driven her family to an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine, the former home of her deceased grandmother where she once spent her childhood summers. Squatting there now, she must care for her spirited young daughter and scrape together enough money to leave before winter arrives—or before they are found out.
Relying on the island for sustenance and answers—bladderwrack, rosehips, tenacious little green crabs; smells held by the damp walls of the house, field guides and religious texts, a failed invention left behind by her missing father—Tuck lives moment-by-moment through the absurdity, beauty, paranoia, and hunger that shoots through her life, as her husband struggles to detox.
Exquisitely written and formally daring, Lungfish tells the story of a woman grappling through the lies she has been told—and those she has told herself—to arrive at the truth of who she is and where she must go. Meghan Gilliss’s debut is a brilliant and heartbreaking novel about addiction, doubt, marriage, motherhood, and learning to see in the dark.
Genre: General Fiction
Praise for this book
"Lungfish offers up journeys physical and psychic, so it's fitting that it takes place on an island, which is a transitional place. It's about families, past and present, and the lifelines they provide, along with their often tangled confusions. The revelations about the natural world are wonderful, and give a sense of what endures." - Ann Beattie
"Tender, brutal, and faultless on the line, Lungfish masterfully explores how estranged family can be as present and punishing as weather. A poetic debut as rich and intentional as the sea." - Marie-Helene Bertino
"Lungfish is as suspenseful as a thriller, as finely wrought as a poem, and as heartbreaking as a love song. Meghan Gilliss is an extraordinary writer. I loved this book." - Kate Christensen
"Lungfish is a lyrical force, a narrative which moves in rhythm reminiscent of the tide, with sentences that sting in their salty complexity and yet are also soothing, like a balm." - Makenna Goodman
"In Lungfish, Meghan Gilliss has written a remarkable book about motherhood, survival, marriage, lies, money, and drug use. Gilliss' prose is a brilliant light in the darkness the novel explores. This book will haunt me, in the very best way." - Annie Hartnett
"At the center of this miraculous and absorbing book is a bracing portrait of a young woman at a pivotal moment in her life. Meghan Gilliss has a rare and electrifying talent for illuminating the precise rhythms of thought and feeling--while also keeping us lovingly immersed in the grit and brine and lucid fascinations of island living. This novel is an absolute treasure." - Lewis Robinson
"Lungfish is a force of nature - a deeply felt marvel of a book that navigates grief, parenthood, and the mysteries of family with unrelenting power and precision. Here is a story about the islands we build and carry with us. Here is storytelling at its best." - Paul Yoon
"Tender, brutal, and faultless on the line, Lungfish masterfully explores how estranged family can be as present and punishing as weather. A poetic debut as rich and intentional as the sea." - Marie-Helene Bertino
"Lungfish is as suspenseful as a thriller, as finely wrought as a poem, and as heartbreaking as a love song. Meghan Gilliss is an extraordinary writer. I loved this book." - Kate Christensen
"Lungfish is a lyrical force, a narrative which moves in rhythm reminiscent of the tide, with sentences that sting in their salty complexity and yet are also soothing, like a balm." - Makenna Goodman
"In Lungfish, Meghan Gilliss has written a remarkable book about motherhood, survival, marriage, lies, money, and drug use. Gilliss' prose is a brilliant light in the darkness the novel explores. This book will haunt me, in the very best way." - Annie Hartnett
"At the center of this miraculous and absorbing book is a bracing portrait of a young woman at a pivotal moment in her life. Meghan Gilliss has a rare and electrifying talent for illuminating the precise rhythms of thought and feeling--while also keeping us lovingly immersed in the grit and brine and lucid fascinations of island living. This novel is an absolute treasure." - Lewis Robinson
"Lungfish is a force of nature - a deeply felt marvel of a book that navigates grief, parenthood, and the mysteries of family with unrelenting power and precision. Here is a story about the islands we build and carry with us. Here is storytelling at its best." - Paul Yoon
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