On a road trip to Flat Water, the home he fled years before, Monty Marinnis must confront the complex and painful loss that drove him away and now demands his return: family. Called back to California for his sister’s wedding, Monty’s journey from the Midwest to the California Coast is also a journey through memory, one complicated by the presence of his adoring, but increasingly frustrated wife Charlotte, from whom Monty has concealed the horrifying details of his family’s fracture and how he remains haunted by what he witnessed as a teenager.
The Marinnis family lost their eldest son in a shocking attack, while Monty watched, helpless. Since that day, he has been obsessed with finding answers to questions that have none: why do bad things happen to some people but not others? Why were they selected to suffer? In Flat Water, Monty will be confronted by brutal truths that rise like sharks from the depths. Faced with such realities, Monty will have to choose between acceptance and self-destruction. Jeremy Broyles’s Flat Water is a sensorial and emotionally rich exploration of guilt, shame, the burden of secrets, and the possibility of redemption.
-Jenny Irish, Author of I Am Faithful and Hatch
Praise for Flat Water
"Flat Water is an honest and empathetic depiction of grief. When Monty loses his brother to a shark attack, he abandons California, his family, and his great love--surfing--for Nebraska; but he can't outrun his past, his pain, or the sharks. Propelled by the energy of Broyles' wit and sparkling prose, Monty's story, like the waves he used to chase, is equal parts surprising and inevitable, brilliant and heartbreaking."
-Meagan Lucas, author of Here in the Dark and Songbirds and Stray Dogs
"Jeremy Broyles' Flat Water will rock you in oceanic waves, both literal and emotional--waves built on powerful sentences like this: 'Where moving water meets planted land, there trades a violent negotiation counted in broken, pulverized rocks.' Such sentences carry you into the heart of a story about love, loss, and grief. From the riptide of grief, Broyles doesn't flinch. Flat Water gives us a clear-eyed look at what it means to suffer great pain, to navigate the murky waters of self-blame, and, ultimately, to find the possibility of self-forgiveness in grief's wake."
-Ann Cummins, author of Red Ant House and Yellowcake