Underlake

A richly glittering debut about the interlocked fates of two women, raised worlds apart, who must join forces on an extraordinary journey, diving leagues beneath the water's surface--and straight into the fathomless heart of fear, forgiveness, and love.

"Stunning . . . Achingly true to the human need for hope and forgiveness, Underlake reveals the greatest depths are within the human heart." --Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker

"Eerie and mesmerizing . . . A journey into the deepest recesses of American society . . . A breathtaking and unforgettable debut about what happens when the water rises and when the water runs out." --Susanna Kwan, author of Awake in the Floating City

"Underlake is a novel of gorgeous, pressurized truth. . . . There are images here I know I will never forget as long as I live." --Clare Beams, author of The Garden

Twelve years ago, Otta escaped her small town, determined to become a marine biologist. Now she's returned, carrying the guilt of a friend's disappearance during a deep-sea dive and unsure she'll ever be able to dive again. Then a stranger appears at her door.

This stranger, May, says that her daughter has run away, and insists that she's under the nearby lake--alive. To find the missing girl, Otta and May must travel deeper and deeper beneath the water, confronting webs of fear, control, and delusion borne of a rampant nostalgia for a purer world. Along the way, they will push their bodies to the mortal limit.

Hypnotic and arresting, Underlake brings a poet's attention to language, evoking the ethereal work of Marilynne Robinson, Lauren Groff, and Emily St. John Mandel and the imaginative brio of Margaret Atwood. In taking her place as a major new voice in American fiction, McCoy shrewdly explores the American obsession with inheritance, property, and race, asking how we stake our claim on the timeline of history--and who we erase in the process.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Published: 04/21/2026
ISBN: 9780385552073
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.81d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 02/09/2026
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2026