Tidal Lock

The term "tidal lock" refers to the locked rotation between two celestial bodies orbiting each other closely — the term explains, for example, why we can only ever see one side of the moon and the back remains hidden from us. Olana, or rather the narrator of Tidal Lock, who is "sometimes" called Olana, as she explains to us, exists in a similar orbit with her own traumatic memories of childhood that remain inaccessible to her. She can circle them again and again, but like the dark side of the moon they remain out of reach for her. This results in a harrowing story of a young woman trying to solve her father's mysterious disappearance years before.

This slim but weighty novel—which consists of 265 shard-like, titled passages divided into four parts— creates an arc of psychological suspense: the narrator's trauma is gradually revealed to us as she herself uncovers it. A shadowy landscape surrounding her sharpens the mystery: Is Olana's father dead or just missing? Where is Olana exactly—does the city she thinks she is in truly exist, or is it only in her head? And who is this woman who claims to be her mother? Despite her inner turmoil, Olana remains alert, persistent, sarcastic, witty, defiant . . . and ultimately rises above her trapped existence to transform into a newly imagined self.

Reviews

“Tidal Lock is a tour de force — a gorgeous, devastating story about a lost, absent father and a neglected daughter. Brilliant and heartbreaking, it is the best, most inventive novel I’ve read in ages.”

—Margaret McMullan, author of Aftermath and Where the Angels Lived

"If Hill's Sea of Hooks reads like updated Proust then Tidal Lock is doing something like that to Beckett. Yet it's the same author, forcing each word, so time and reading slow, only this time the trajectory tacks steadily inward.

— Alvin Lu, author of The Hell Screens

"Tidal Lock is so richly metaphorical that I could not divorce its deft magic from my own memories and circumstances. Like Kazuo Ishiguro's Unconsoled or J. Robert Lennon's Pieces for the Left Hand, this is a literary marvel at once unsettling and familiar, elusive and intentional. I absolutely love this book."

—Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra

About the author

Lindsay Hill was born in San Francisco and graduated from Bard College. Since 1974 he has published six books of poetry and his work has appeared in many literary journals. Sea of Hooks, his first novel and the product of nearly twenty years' work, was published by McPherson in 2013. Prior to being awarded the 2014 PEN USA Fiction Prize, Publishers Weekly declared Sea of Hooks “the most underrated novel of 2013.” Lindsay Hill lives in Los Angeles.