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What Did the Deep Sea Say?

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What Did the Deep Sea Say?

By: Marion Coutts
Narrated by: Marion Coutts
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A stunning meditation on how the physical world can bring us back to earth from the edge of grief

In the aftermath of catastrophic loss, a mother and her young son cross the Atlantic, taking refuge in a wooden house on a remote strip of land. Viewed from the shore, where land meets sea, the horizon is a line that holds their attention and draws them in. Camera in hand, she charts their progress and starts to imagine new ways of being and a new existence for her small family.

Writing with precision and clarity, Coutts combines the real with the fictional, thinking through art, poetry, geology, maps and Minecraft to present a devastating and fierce reflection on intimacy and separation, the visible and the invisible and the fragility and strangeness of the ocean and its borders.

'A miracle of a book' CELIA PAUL

© Marion Coutts 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Ecosystems & Habitats Grief & Loss Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Personal Development Philosophy Relationships Science Women

Critic Reviews

I loved reading What did the Deep Sea Say? Marion Coutts gently reveals to us a world seen as if for the first time. It's a miracle of a book (Celia Paul)
A strange and beautiful meditation on endings and edges, grief and hope, love and sorrow . . . What Did the Deep Sea Say? takes the reader into a liminal space rich in revelation and reflection (Gavin Francis)
Clear-eyed and courageous, her writing is an existential act (Mark Wallinger)
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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.