A New York Times Editors’ Choice A USA TODAY Bestseller A Booklist Editor’s Choice A Goodreads Choice Award Nominee A Massachusetts Book Awards Fiction Honors Selection Shortlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize
A “beautifully written” (Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See) debut novel of marriage, motherhood, metamorphosis, and letting go, this intergenerational love story begins with newlyweds Wren and her husband, Lewis—a man who, over the course of nine months, transforms into a great white shark.
For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.
At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this “heart-wringing” (Adam Roberts, internationally bestselling author of Salt) novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice.
A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.
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“A poignant tale of grief and change.” —Town and Country
Overall rating: 3.25 / 5 from 4 reviews.
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Reviews
A Strange and Stunningly Beautiful Novel
"Emily Habeck's Shark Heart is a profoundly unique and moving exploration of love, transformation, and letting go. The premise is as bizarre as it is brilliant, but it serves as a powerful metaphor for navigating a life-altering diagnosis or profound change."
— Ashley I. (4/5)
Great debut
"This book was more than I expected, halfway through the book it shifted its gaze onto generational trauma and family and I was pleasantly surprised. I did cry. Great book."
— Ryan (4/5)
Don’t know this author…. returned the book as it was a mistake…. .
"I returned this book as I thought I was buying an Emily Henry novel and this is not her so I returned it and because I had read all the Emily Henry’s in stock …. I will wait on something else of hers to come in or another author?"
— D. B. (1/5)
Stunning Debut
"Adorable, quirky and inventive. Everything you’d expect from a book about a husband turning into a shark."
— Sam H. (4/5)
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Published date: Jun 04, 2024
Language: English
No. of Pages: 432
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 9781668006504
Dimensions:
5.5" W x
1.0" L x
8.375" H
Emily Habeck is an alumna of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, where she received a BFA in theatre, as well as Vanderbilt Divinity School and Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. She is from Ardmore, Oklahoma. Shark Heart is her first novel.
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