A Magic Deep and Drowning: A Novel

The Familiar meets The Warm Hands of Ghosts in this gender-flipped, folklore-rich reimagining of The Little Mermaid set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, where a young woman is forever changed when the powerful queen of the ocean marks her life as the final payment in a sinister, age-old bargain between the peoples of the land and the water.   Set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, this enchanting, lush reimagining of The Little Mermaid is perfect for fans of Jesse Burton’s The Miniaturist and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar.The Dutch Republic, 1650. One fine spring day in Friesland, twenty-year-old Clara van Wieren is faced with an ill omen: a whale, beached and rotting in the noonday sun. But Clara doesn’t believe in magic and superstition, and this portent is quickly dismissed when a proposal from a wealthy merchant arrives, promising Clara the freedom she seeks from her mother’s overbearing rule.When her attempts at overseeing the household at the family’s estate