Under the Wave at Waimea

From renowned writer Paul Theroux comes a dazzling novel following a big-wave surfer in Hawaii as he confronts ageing, privilege and mortality

'It was as if in surfing he was carving his name in water, invisibly, joyously.'

Joe Sharkey knows he is passed his prime.

Now in his sixties, the younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still revere him as the once-legendary 'Shark', but his sponsors have moved on, and Joe wonders what new future awaits him on the horizon. Uninterrupted quality time with the ocean, he hopes.

Life has other plans.

When he accidentally hits and kills a man near Waimea while drunk-driving, he fears he will never rebound. Under the direction of his stubbornly loyal girlfriend Olive, he throws himself into uncovering his victim's story. But what they find in Max Mulgrave is entirely unexpected: a shared history - and refuge in the sea.

Set on the stunning Hawaiian coast, Theroux captures the glory and nostalgia of looking back at a rich and adventurous past, whilst learning to ride out life's next unexpected wave.

'[Paul Theroux's] writing skills are disciplined and muscular, his ear as finely tuned as a musician's, his eye sharper than any razor' Daily Mail

Reviews

Superb... Under the Wave at Waimea immerses you so elaborately in its watery world that you may start seeing surfing as just another guise for life itself... This probing tale of a man who's come undone and the strong, stark woman who thinks she can reassemble him is one of Theroux's best novels