On Such a Full Sea

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From the award-winning author of Native Speaker and The Surrendered comes a provocative tale of one woman's quest in a shocking future America. This story showcases Chang-rae Lee's elegant prose and masterful storytelling, exploring themes of identity, culture, work, and love in a newly imagined world. Set in a long-declining America, society is rigidly divided by class, with abandoned urban areas transformed into high-walled labor colonies. The labor class, descendants of those brought from environmentally ruined China, find purpose in providing pristine produce and fish to elite charter villages surrounding their settlement. In this society lives Fan, a fish-tank diver who leaves her home in the B-Mor settlement (formerly Baltimore) when her beloved mysteriously vanishes. Her journey to find him leads her beyond the safety of B-Mor into the anarchic Open Counties, characterized by rampant crime and minimal government oversight. As she travels to a distant charter village, her quest evolves into a legendary tale for those she leaves behind, challenging readers to reconsider their perceptions of the world.