The Love an Abalone Feels For the Sea - A Novel

In a remote Japanese fishing village, a grief-stricken young boy searches for answers after his sister's mysterious drowning—only to fall in love, years later, with a woman who may hold the secret of her final tragic dive

Haunting and buoyant, The Love an Abalone Feels for the Sea is situated within the world of Japan’s traditional freedivers, or Amas, who support the local economy by hunting abalone and other shellfish—reaching depths of up to 65 feet without any scuba gear—a practice that stretches back over 2,000 years. In this treacherous line of work, breath and timing is everything, and it is crucial to train the lungs from a young age. But a determined young woman named Nagisa joins the ama as a teen, and during one fateful dive, she doesn't return to the surface. Only a mysterious pile of wakame (seaweed) is left behind in her recovered basket. 

Ren Ioka, Nagisa's seventeen-year-old brother, finds himself unmoored by grief and uncertainty. After discovering an unsent love letter written by his sister years earlier, Ren becomes convinced that this confession holds the secret behind her inexplicable final dive. While retracing his sister's hidden love, Ren meets Aiko, an inscrutable ama who dove with Nagisa. As Ren gradually uncovers the truth behind his sister's confession, he finds himself falling for Aiko, not realizing that she's harboring a secret herself.