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When Tara Menon describes the underwater world that surrounds an island off the coast of Thailand, her language is both restrained and lush.

“The reef is busy with color,” she writes, “Fiery scorpion fish, yellow frog-fish, red snappers, white-and-orange clown fish, a shoal of electric-blue angelfish, fat black sea cucumbers, powder-blue surgeonfish. Sand suspended between the dimpled surface glitters in the sunlight.”

Her prose, like the story, exemplifies the contrast between the simple joy of true friendship and the aching loss left behind when that gift is stripped away. 

,” unfolds before and after the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, that surged across the Indian Ocean and killed more than 225,000 people. But the heartbeat of the story is the friendship between two girls who each have to navigate a stinging loss. 

Menon joins Kerri Miller for a conversation about writing, the elegance of restraint and how to avoid sentimentality when building a story around childhood friendship and exuberant nature, on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. 

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The underwater world that Tara Menon creates in her new novel is wonderous and immersive. She joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about nature and friendship and loss, and how to write without cliches or sentimentality. 

A book cover and an author portrait for "Under Water" by Tara Menon

Lush nature and fathomless loss coexist in 'Under Water'

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