A Seahorse Year
A Seahorse Year by Stacey D’Erasmo, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2004, is a novel that delves into a transformative year for a modern family in contemporary San Francisco. The narrative centers on the challenges faced by an extended family as they navigate the complexities brought on by the troubled adolescent boy, Christopher. As his behavior escalates, the relationships among his mother, Nan; her lover, Marina; his father, Hal; and his girlfriend, Tamara are tested, revealing deeper truths about their identities and connections.
Readers will find that A Seahorse Year explores themes of love and the limits of familial bonds through precise and lyrical language. The story raises difficult questions about the nature of love and the consequences of actions taken in its name. As Christopher’s journey leads him into the woods of northern California, the family’s assumptions about themselves and their modernity are challenged, prompting reflections on their lives. This first edition spans 360 pages and is presented in English, inviting readers to engage with its psychological and literary dimensions.
Official synopsis Publisher
Stacey D’Erasmo’s new novel, following the highly acclaimed Tea, is a powerful and beautiful book about a pivotal year in the life of a quintessentially modern family. In contemporary San Francisco, an extended family is transformed by the emerging breakdown of a troubled adolescent boy. The lives of those who love Christopher — his mother, Nan; her lover, Marina; his gay father, Hal; and Christopher’s loyal girlfriend, Tamara — are pushed to the edge by something new in him that mystifies them all. When he runs away, far into the woods of nothern California, their assumptions about themselves and one another are sorely tested. They might not, they discover, be quite so modern as they once thought. Even the dried seahorses on Marina’s windowpane rattle unnervingly as if to announce a time like no other.
In precise, lyrical language, A Seahorse Year explores love at the limits of bearability. It is wise about the things we do out of love that often have both redemptive and disastrous consequences. Difficult questions that have all the tough complexity of real life are asked; devastating truths are revealed in the answers.
Michael Cunningham described Tea as “pure and profound, a ravishing book.” A Seahorse Year is an even richer, more luminous achievement.
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