Under the Wave at Waimea

Book cover of Under the Wave at Waimea

Book description

From renowned writer Paul Theroux comes a dazzling novel following a big-wave surfer in Hawaii as he confronts ageing, privilege and mortality

'It was as if in surfing he was carving his name in water, invisibly, joyously.'

Joe Sharkey knows he is passed his prime.

Now in his sixties, the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Under the Wave at Waimea as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jamie Brisick

Author

I grew up reading Paul Theroux’s fiction and nonfiction. His travel books riveted me, inducing a wanderlust I’ve yet to come down from. When I learned that he’d written a surf novel, I jumped all over it.

I was not disappointed—more like enchanted. There’s the macking surf. There’s Hawaii. There’s the fascinating Joe Sharkey. And there’s a very subtle moment where Paul, the author, pokes his head through and breaks the fourth wall as it were. I loved that. And I love this book.

From Jamie's list on books about surfing that will thrust you into the tube.

The Last Bird of Paradise

By Clifford Garstang,

Book cover of The Last Bird of Paradise

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What is my book about?

Two women, a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives after leaving their homelands. Arriving in tropical Singapore, they find romance, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee.

Haunted by the specter of terrorism after 9/11, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York career and joins her husband in Southeast Asia when he takes a job there. She acquires several paintings by a colonial-era British artist that she believes are a warning.

The artist, Elizabeth Pennington, tells her own tumultuous story through diary entries that end when World War I reaches the colony with…

The Last Bird of Paradise

By Clifford Garstang,

What is this book about?

"Aislinn Givens leaves a settled life in Manhattan for an unsettled life in Singapore. That painting radiates mystery and longing. So does Clifford Garstang's vivid and simmering novel, The Last Bird of Paradise." –John Dalton, author of Heaven Lake and The Inverted Forest

Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven't left behind the dangers that caused them to flee.

In the aftermath of 9/11 and haunted by the specter of terrorism, Aislinn Givens leaves her…

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