Judith Whitman always believed in the kind of love that "picks you up in Akron and sets you down in Rio." Long ago, she once experienced that love. Willy Blunt was a carpenter with a dry wit and a steadfast sense of honor. Marrying him seemed like a natural thing to promise. But Willy Blunt was not a person you could pick up in Nebraska and transport to Stanford. When Judith left home, she didn't look back. Twenty years later, Judith's marriage is hazy with secrets. In her hand is what may be the phone number for the man who believed she meant it when she said she loved him. If she called, what would he say? To Be Sung Underwater is the epic love story of a woman trying to remember, and the man who could not even begin to forget.
Tom McNeal's first novel, Goodnight, Nebraska, won the James A. Michener Memorial Prize and California Book Award, and his short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize XXI. He lives near San Diego with his wife and sons.
What People are Saying About This
Ann Packer
"Smart, sexy, gorgeous, and at times devastatingly sad—these words describe the woman at the heart of this wonderful novel almost as well as they do the book itself. This ravishing love story will envelop you for a few days and then linger for a long time thereafter." --(Ann Packer, author of Swim Back to Me and The Dive from Clausen's Pier)
Ehud Havazelet
"What a pleasure to hear Tom McNeal's voice again, its humor and intelligence and muscle. By turns gentle and grim, lyric and comic, To Be Sung Underwater is a lovely book about what remains after so much is lost. What sweeps you along is not just the power of its writing but what distinguishes McNeal from nearly every other writer working in America these days—his unironic affection for the characters he brings so richly to life." --(Ehud Havazelet, author of Bearing the Body)
Lily King
"Anyone who has grown up and away from their roots will commiserate with Judith Whitman's attempts in the middle of her life to put back all the broken pieces of the past. Anyone who has ever been left behind will ache for Willy Blunt and his long and excruciating wait for her return. These characters in To Be Sung Underwater, written with such perception and tenderness, are vivid, funny, flawed, and truly unforgettable. Tom McNeal is a stunning writer who can do everything effortlessly." --(Lily King, author of Father of the Rain)
Richard Ford
To Be Sung Underwater is such an immensely readable novel. McNeal has the enviable talent of making splendid writing look easy at no cost to the complexity and the beauties of what fascinates him (and me) — the terrain occupied by women and men in love with each other. This is a wonderful book.
Markus Zusak
"You don't so much read To Be Sung Underwater as you're consumed by it. The characters are unforgettable. The writing is staggering. More importantly, though, it's the courage of this book that sets it apart. It's the bravest, most beautiful book I've read in a long time." --(Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief)
