Above Us the Sea

Ania Card grew up in south-eastern Poland before moving to the UK. She lived in Cardiff and London before moving to Brighton, where she now lives with her husband and cat. She studied film theory at King’s College London and worked in film production before returning to writing. Above Us the Sea is her first novel.

"This is a stunning novel that completely captured my heart. It's a book about loss, grief, love and identity & every beautifully constructed sentence lingers. I loved it." Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things“A story that cunningly captures the tidal waves of grief, identity and connectivity. Card doesn't leave a word out of place.” Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures"Above Us The Sea shows how we can be made and remade, translated and retranslated - for better and for worse - in the eyes and arms of others. A documentation and love letter to the fantasy spaces of gay bars, indie music venues, foreign countries and the homes of friends, Card's novel celebrates all who have held us at our most vulnerable and temporary.' Jen Calleja, author of Vehicle"Above Us The Sea, by Ania Card is a wonderful exploration of love, loss and identity set in London, Cardiff and Warsaw. Sometimes brutal, always beautiful, this is a work of poise, tenderness and affecting authenticity, unafraid to expose human frailty and to ask important questions about the compromises we are willing to make in order to belong." Wiz Wharton, author of Ghost Girl, Banana"Finishing the year with Above Us The Sea by Ania Card and I still feel submerged in its incredible imagery.  A deeply moving story of grief, losing and finding oneself, and the bonds of friendship, every sentence sings with beauty and sadness." Sarah Marsh, author of A Sign of Her Own"Ania Card’s debut is a sensual and moody exploration of language, belonging, and home. Toni, whose visions of the sea haunt her as she strives to create a meaningful life for herself, vibrant Gav, and intense Karol will stick with me for a long time. Card captures the atmosphere of a particular moment in British history, and the lives of people who are scapegoated and alienated by two different countries...Above Us The Sea is rooted in enduring love and profound grief that is at once both totally specific to Toni’s experiences and absolutely universal." Rachel Dawson, author of Neon Roses“Brimming with a love of language and sidestepping clichés, this confident debut movingly explores the in-betweenness of migrant identity and the sense of loss that accompanied that divisive, life-altering referendum. Ania Card is a writer to watch.” Polis Loizou, author of Disbanded Kingdom“Ania Card's debut novel is a love story between a woman and a gay man which gives the weight these relationships hold for those of us who’ve experienced it away from the cliches and into the heart of it.” Paul McVeigh, author of Good Boy"Ania Card's brilliant debut is a kind of modern-day expat Great Gatsby and Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin for our time. As soon as I met Toni and Gav and Karol, I felt like I was home." Jennifer Belle, best-selling author of High Maintenance and Swanna in Love"It's so beautifully-crafted, full of tenderness and longing, wiry but lush, tender but brutal, with a protagonist who will be in my head for a long time to come. It's a triumph." Rebecca Pert, author of Still Water“Above Us The Sea is a tense, moving story, filled with complex, flawed characters. So often I wanted to shout aloud at my open copy and somehow hope the characters would hear my warnings!” Flora Carr, author of The Tower"A bristling vitality pours through Above Us The Sea. In this novel. Ania Card illuminates  how places haunt us, how we haunt those places, too, the inescapable drift between who we are, where we’re from. In fine, nuanced, brush-stroke prose, Ania Card has created a bouquet of grief, longing, and beauty." Bea Setton, author of Berlin“Dead Ink Books have done it again…This book is an absolute triumph, a great summer read, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.” Debut DigestRecommended by Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures, on BBC Radio Surrey