Tidal Flats: A Novel

by Cynthia Newberry Martin

Overview

A marriage story. How much is too much to want?

"I've been waiting a long time for this book." ―Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers and Music for Wartime

2020 IPPY Award Winner for Literary Fiction
2020 NIEA Winner for General Fiction and Best Cover 

In this elegant and honest novel, a young couple must navigate that fine line between the things they want for themselves and the the things they want together, and it appears each will have to make a choice―the person they love or the life they want.

Mary Cassatt Miller, the director of an Atlanta home for older women, and famous photojournalist Ethan Graham want a life together. Despite Ethan’s work taking him to the streets of Afghanistan, he agrees that after three years, he will stop traveling.

But, nine weeks before their third anniversary, Cass is unsure whether Ethan will ever give up the work he loves. As the clock counts down, it doesn’t help that Singer, the artist-bartender, is always in Atlanta, and the enthralling Setara, the subject of Ethan’s most famous photograph, is also his business partner.

A new danger in Afghanistan changes everything. 

Paperback includes a Reader's Guide, perfect for Book Clubs and all Lovers of Fiction:

• This story of marriage will inspire discussions about feminist books, a person's sense of self, the question of whether or not to have a family, individual passions, romance versus love, romance inspired by lovers, missed anniversaries and marriage conflicts. 
• Features relatable characters with a sense of self, family dynamics and a journey through romance, love disapointment, secrets, conflict, passion, and danger. 
• A novel that’s perfect for lovers of fiction, romance stories, and feminist books

Lovers of fiction and fans of feminist books like Writers & Lovers by Lily King, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, Life Drawing by Robin Black you’re going to love Cynthia Newberry Martin’s novel Tidal Flats.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642509816
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Cynthia Newberry Martin writes from her soul. She mainly writes about how characters can navigate between separateness and togetherness in a healthy way. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Hunger Mountain, Brevity, Gargoyle, Contrary Magazine, Clapboard House, Storyglossia, Numéro Cinq, etc. For a number of years, she served as the Review Editor for Contrary Magazine and the Writing Life Editor for Hunger Mountain. In 2012 she graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Creative Writing. Later that year, she was awarded a residency at Ragdale. In 2013, she became a founding board member of the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers. She spends her days in Columbus, GA, with her husband, and in Provincetown, MA, in a little house by the water. For more about Cynthia and her writing, please check out her website at www.cynthianewberrymartin.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Cynthia Newberry Martin is a tremendous writer, with a Woolfian talent for taking the full measure of small moments. Her work is both subtle and revelatory, and I've been waiting a long time for this book." —Rebecca Makkai author of The Great Believers and Music for Wartime.

"Exquisite! A gorgeously observed account of one woman's life, lived in our era of global reach, of international obligations, of domestic worries and domestic triumphs too. Cynthia Newberry Martin has found the perfect story through which to share her rare wisdom. Brava!" —Robin Black, author of Life Drawing

“Cynthia Newberry Martin’s TIDAL FLATS is written out of the rough wisdom that knows that love is a peculiar, dynamic force, and all we can do against it is to be alert and open and awake. This is a story of making and unmaking and making again, with no neat resolutions or pat answers. It’s a beautiful book.” — Paul Lisicky, author of Later and The Narrow Door

"For once, a novel of big ideas that is also filled with bold and uncommon events. In Tidal Flats, Cynthia Newberry Martin, a storyteller at the top of her game, creates a universe of betrayal, compassion, and regret in which two people’s love for each other is surpassed only by their loyalty to their convictions. I was glued to the page." —Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

"With deep insight and unending sensitivity, Cynthia Newberry Martin shows us to ourselves: our penchant for choosing lives that will crack us open, our resilience when our deepest fears come true. In scenes both vivid and emotionally complex, Tidal Flats excavates the interior of a long term marriage, how it demands the impossible, offers the unimaginable. This book is a stunning, heart-expanding debut. —Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country

I admire Martin’s capacity to render her characters with the dignity of complexity. And I double-admire that she takes that same care with her settings, turning place into a player that has its own “human” heart. The novel swirls with light and love. —Joshua Mohr, author of Sirens and All This Life

From the Publisher