The Ocean Above Me by journalist and author Kevin Sites was named winner for Best Psychological Thriller in both the 2024 American Fiction Awards and American Legacy Book Awards.
The critically acclaimed book continues to gain momentum having been previously longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s Debut Novel Prize in 2023 as well as selected as a finalist for the 2024 Hawthorne Prize.
In the book, former war correspondent Lukas Landon is alone, trapped under 150 feet of water in an overturned shrimp trawler at the bottom of the ocean.
The only thing keeping him alive is an air bubble in the ship’s bow. But the water level is rising, and time is running out. Landon doesn’t know if he will survive… or if he even deserves to.
A thrilling fight for survival and a poignant story of loss and redemption, The Ocean Above Me explores the effects of trauma, the pain of forgiveness, and the light of love that burns in the darkest depths.
Kevin Sites is an award-winning journalist, author and novelist.
He worked as a reporter for more than thirty years, half of them covering war and disaster for ABC, NBC, CNN, Yahoo, and Vice News.
During that time, he helped pioneer the concept of self-sufficient, video field reporting known as backpack journalism.
He was a 2010 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University and a 2012 Dart Fellow in Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.
He is the author of three books on war: In the Hot Zone, The Things They Cannot Say, and Swimming with Warlords.
The Ocean Above Me was published by Harper in July 2023.
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