A Gold Winner in Literary Fiction for the 2022 Foreword INDIES
A Gold Medalist in Literary Fiction for the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards
A Best Book of the Year from TIME
“Sara Freeman constructs a portrait of a woman broken by loss to reveal an aching and emotional narrative, told in clear and piercing prose.” — TIME’s Best Books of 2022
“Freeman hammers her paragraphs down into perfected, indivisible units… A poignant evocation of a woman adrift in the wake of tragedy.” — The Guardian
"Tides is concerned with what is intentionally hidden, flickering or muddied, waiting to be excavated . . . As the story unfolds in short sections sometimes only a sentence long (calling to mind Jenny Offill’s 'Dept. of Speculation' and 'Weather') what’s most hypnotic is what’s revealed beneath the waves of language: the impossibility of leaving one’s past behind . . . Just as the tides are something we can count on, our life events are imprinted inside of us, fossilized and imperfect shells swirling with their own kind of broken beauty."—Boston Globe
“A beautiful portrait of a woman unmoored—and the connections that bring her back.” — Literary Hub
“Prepare to get deeply involved in this stunning debut novel about grief and loss….) As Tides ’ heroine begins to come out of her shell—thanks in part to a new friend’s kindness—the story shifts from an unforgettable portrait of bereavement and emptiness to one of human connection and hope.” — Apple Books , Best Books of January
“The beauty of Freeman’s prose lies as much in this unexpected cadence as in the contrast between beauty and harshness tucked into every page… In its poetic unfolding, Tides reveals itself to be a stunning and revelatory tale of the dissolution of one woman’s life, her unexpected ties to the sea, and the many ways present selves are tied to their pasts … In this stunning debut novel, a woman’s life unravels, builds and unravels again across a series of sparse and staggering vignettes.” –Kerry McHugh, Shelf Awareness
“Tides is a brief novel, told in intense, concentrated scenes, some no longer than a sentence . . . The brittle shards of story conceal great emotion; if Mara let down her guard, you think, the pain would drown her . . . touching but not depressing, bleak but also beautiful.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[S]tarkly beautiful.” — WBUR
“TIDES is a slim novel, but its structure encourages slow and reflective reading….[S]trangely hopeful and beautiful.” — Bookreporter
“Mercurial…. Freeman’s prose is taut and illuminating, a style that manages to be both detached and emotionally devastating… A powerful intelligence underpins this work, which concerns itself with familiar subjects of loss, legacy and love. So accomplished is Freeman’s interrogation of these matters that it is hard to believe it is her first book… [a] beautifully observed, elegantly written debut… Bleak but beautiful, a life understood instead of under siege.” — The Irish Times
“As well as being beautifully atmospheric, Tides is an intriguing exploration of the effect of sheer propinquity on romance.” — Financial Times
“Taut and affecting, Tides proceeds in fragments… The reader proceeds as if scanning a littered foreshore in the wake of high tide, uncertain as to whether the next object will be alluring, lurid, or both… the overall effect is quietly seductive. We are drawn frictionlessly into Mara’s psyche, and then made to stay there.” — Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Tides’ fragmented chapters gleam like pearls strung on a powerful narrative of grief and survival, some only a line or so long, a page given to each... This is a beautifully crafted story of a women learning to live again.” — Fanny Blake, Daily Mail
“Done with plausibility and complexity… Not the least interesting element is Freeman's use of repetition compulsion as a device; that is, a traumatised person's need to obsessively reenact a defining event. I last saw itused as effectively as this in Tom McCarthy's 2005 novel Remainder.” — The Critic
“Charismatic… With an intricate narrative and in deceptively simple language, Freeman captures the full extent of loss. Complicated and enchanting, this prismatic examination of emotional endurance is a winner” —Publishers Weekly , starred review
“[B]eautiful and translucent. Mirroring the ebb and flow of water, short paragraphs leave lots of empty spaces on the page, enhancing the emotional gut punches latent in the text, while moments of heightened action run uninterrupted.”—B ooklist , starred review
“Freeman’s novel reads like a shattered mirror gradually being pieced together, though the reflection, as in real life, never comes perfectly clear. . . . What is left is a portrait of a woman’s psyche pared to the core, to unsettling effect. . . . An intense and lyrical debut.” —Kirkus
“Mara’s story is cleverly told through an expressive inner monologue.” — Woman’s Weekly
“TIDES by Sara Freeman is irresistible. A quiet tale of a woman adrift, who is fleeing her past and trying to lose herself in a small seaside town. I read it in an afternoon but I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.” — Douglas Stuart
"Brilliant, elegant, and unsparing. Tides is a lyrical meditation on selfhood: Sara Freeman illuminates, with a poet's eye, the shifting interior landscape of a woman adrift." —Emma Cline
“Tides is a perfect jewel of a novel. Haunting, moving, powerful yet spare. It sticks to your guts in ways you never expected. I loved it.” — Miranda Cowley Heller
“Sara Freeman is such a gifted writer, and she maps with great beauty and precision the territory of loss. This novel is lovely, dark, troubling, and deep.” —Alix Ohlin
"Sara Freeman goes about her business in Tides with such cool composure that I didn't fully register the serious heat of the thing until my eyebrows had started to sizzle. I'm amazed that this is a first novel. There is something very large to be found in this wonderfully compressed work." —Laird Hunt
" I read Tides in two voracious sittings, thrilled by the push-pull of Sara Freeman's prose: the tightly-controlled surface lyricism barely containing the violent upheaval beneath. Freeman inhabits the mind of her nearly-unhinged narrator so fully that the reader comes to understand — and even identify with — the sometimes twisted logic of grief and unmet longing. Who are we, as women, apart from the ones we love, or try to love? A beautiful, painfully prescient debut from a wildly talented new writer." —Jamie Quatro
"Body and soul, heart and mind, spirit and ground: in this astonishingly moving, taut debut, Sara Freeman gives us a woman on the edge of her own emotional survival. A thrilling, visceral story of grief and renewal." —Stacey D'Erasmo, author of Wonderland
"To read Sara Freeman’s Tides is to witness the stunning aftermath of an intimate disturbance—a wave glowing in the dark. As readers we watch the exquisite beauty of its surface and are plunged inside its startling depths. Freeman reminds us of the grandeur and terror of being alive with others in whose company we might luminesce." —Jennifer Tseng
"A tale of internal exile, of a woman on the lam from her own loved ones and from the memories that cage her. Tides is a marvel — lyrical and suspenseful at the same time." —Jonathan Dee "An irresistible debut novel about one woman's several loves. Sara Freeman writes wonderful sentences, wavy and surprising and full of sensations." —Christine Schutt
"One of the most carefully written, brave, honest, devastating books I've read for a long time. There were lines in it so emotionally accurate and merciless they made me squint up my eyes. It's explosive. But the effect is the inside-your-body, barely-heard-properly percussive receipt of a detonation felt at a distance" —Cynan Jones
Tides with such cool composure that I didn't fully register the serious heat of the thing until my eyebrows had started to sizzle. I'm amazed that this is a first novel. There is something very large to be found in this wonderfully compressed work.” —Laird Hunt
"Delicate, unconventional, contemporary—Tides is a novel held together by electricity, like a storm that just won’t break." —Padma Viswanathan
“A compulsive read — this story and its characters seeped into me, so that I often thought of them between spells of reading. Freeman’s voice has a salt to it that feels both evocative of and independent from the sea-streaked setting. The main character has venom, but she seems more self-stinging than anything, which only adds to the story’s unsettling allure. From the crystalline prose to the plot's syncopated rhythm, Tides is an incisive, memorable debut.” —Eliza Robertson
★ 10/25/2021
An emotionally charged story of wanderlust and longing unfolds in Freeman’s captivating debut. After an unspecified and devastating loss, Mara, 36 and divorced with no children, walks out on her life, leaving a note behind for her brother and sister-in-law (“I’ll be fine!”). She ends up in a nondescript seaside town in an unspecified region, where she drifts with a surreal sense of detachment and dwindling funds. Freeman drops clues to Mara’s heartache in spare prose that’s punctuated by humor and denial: “This is not that,” Mara tells herself when confronted with reminders of her desire to be a mother, such as children’s swimsuits left hanging over banisters and toys partially buried in the sand. She dissociates from her feelings in any number of ways, including indulging in fantasies about what her brother might have to say about her disappearance. Desperate for money, she finds a job at a local wine shop; equally desperate for food, she resorts to stealing. Her boss, Simon, notices the inner struggle at Mara’s core and quickly becomes the one connection she has in an otherwise muted and lonely life. With an intricate narrative and in deceptively simple language, Freeman captures the full extent of loss. Complicated and enchanting, this prismatic examination of emotional endurance is a winner. (Jan.)
06/01/2022
Following a devastating loss, Mara leaves her family behind and heads into a self-imposed exile. She mindlessly wanders, landing in a wealthy seaside town. When her money runs out, she is forced to scavenge for food, clothing, and shelter, until she is finally hired by the local wine shop owner, Simon. It is there that she allows herself to open up and connect with her boss. She begins to feel alive again in this tale of self-worth, grief, and moving on. Amy Rutherford succeeds in vocally capturing the wide range of emotions found in Freeman's debut novel. She infuses Mara with a world-weary tone in the opening as she objectively tells her story, then carries her emotionally through despondency, depression, a demeaned self-image, and demoralized actions. Mara speaks Spanish as if a non-native speaker. Once the curtain of emotional darkness begins to lift for Mara and she begins to allow her emotions to wash over her as she remembers why she left home, Rutherford picks up the book's energy and pacing in her performance through the rest of the story, reflecting Mara's desire to move forward with her life. VERDICT A great summer beach listen for fans of Marguerite Duras.—Stephanie Bange
08/01/2021
Freeman here profiles a woman blasted by grief who ends up in a posh seaside town after running from her family. She barely survives, cadging food and swimming in the ocean at night, until the tourist season ends and she lands a job at the local wine store. There she starts building ties with the lonely owner, and the reasons for her grief emerge. First serial to Granta magazine; Freeman won a Henfield Prize from Columbia University while earning her MFA there.
This audiobook is a dramatic dissection of one woman's psyche. Through richly detailed lyrical prose, listeners enter the mind of Mara, who is helpless and hapless, and living insecurely in a coastal town. Narrator Amy Rutherford manages to make this wounded heroine believable. The author has an intuitive feel for the refinement and subtlety of language. Listeners are not surprised when Mara's affair with her boss in a wine shop ends precipitously. There is something about Rutherford's voice that alerts listeners to Mara's continual failure to sustain what is generally regarded as a good life. There are memorable depictions in this production, such as the smooth, self-satisfied voice of the wine shop owner's wife. This is a language lover's audiobook. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile
This audiobook is a dramatic dissection of one woman's psyche. Through richly detailed lyrical prose, listeners enter the mind of Mara, who is helpless and hapless, and living insecurely in a coastal town. Narrator Amy Rutherford manages to make this wounded heroine believable. The author has an intuitive feel for the refinement and subtlety of language. Listeners are not surprised when Mara's affair with her boss in a wine shop ends precipitously. There is something about Rutherford's voice that alerts listeners to Mara's continual failure to sustain what is generally regarded as a good life. There are memorable depictions in this production, such as the smooth, self-satisfied voice of the wine shop owner's wife. This is a language lover's audiobook. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2022 - AudioFile
2021-10-13
After her baby is stillborn—and unable to bear living in the apartment directly above her brother and his newborn son, whose cries remind her daily of her loss—37-year-old Mara has only one goal: “to slip into a blind spot, to run out on her life.” She heads for a seaside town where she knows no one, determined to live as ruinously as possible. She drinks as much as she can, eats as little as possible, and sleeps sometimes on the beach, sometimes in strangers’ beds. With her financial resources dwindling, Mara takes a job in a wine shop and begins living surreptitiously in the store’s attic room. Her boss, Simon, is suffering too: His wife has left him, taking their young daughter. As Mara begins to warm to Simon, her character and her past begin to take shape: her childhood in Quebec with a difficult mother, an absent father, and a loyal younger brother; her relationship with her husband. Told in image-heavy, crystalline fragments of prose, sometimes only one or two sentences to a page, Freeman’s novel reads like a shattered mirror gradually being pieced together, though the reflection, as in real life, never comes perfectly clear. For much of the novel’s first half, Freeman keeps Mara as a cipher, less a character and more simply a vessel for grief and self-destructive impulses. But as Mara’s character sharpens into focus, the narrative restraint gives way in pieces like a sudden calving of ice. What is left is a portrait of a woman’s psyche pared to the core, to unsettling effect. As the narrator says of Mara: “She knows: if there is a mistake to be made, she will make it.”
An intense and lyrical debut.
