Mermaid Chronicles: A Midlife Mer-moir

The true tale of how one woman’s lifelong obsession became a midlife mermaid odyssey, from the irrepressibly witty author of Tinderbox and Things I Learned at Art School.

Forty, freckled and facing infertility, Megan Dunn hears the siren call that reawakens her lifelong obsession, and sets off in pursuit of mermaids. Real mermaids.

From Coney Island and Copenhagen to Courtenay Place, Wellington, New Zealand, from the semiotics of 1984 romantic comedy Splash to meet-ups with top professional mermaids, her odyssey takes her fathoms
deep, past the wreck and the boardwalk, as she asks the question that has plagued humans for millennia- What is it about mermaids?

Diving into the caverns of her own life, Megan loses the plot but finds her voice and hears the mermaids singing.

Shimmeringly intellectual and devastatingly deadpan, tragicomic and true, this is an off-the-hook tale about sex and death, mothers and daughters, women’s work and marriage, the stories we tell ourselves and the myths that define us all.

‘Her voice is so strong. It’s wonderful.’ – Lorde

‘A treasure of a memoir . . . funny, frank and moving.’ – Kim Hill

‘Observes the importance of fantasy with keen wit and an open heart’. – Pip Adam, author of The New Animals

‘A fabulously witty adventure, written in deeply moving prose.’ – Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Imprint: Penguin Books NZ
Publication date: 13/08/2024