The sisters fall apart from each other, one toward her mother and the other toward her father. A layered account of the truths of a torn family, two sisters depart from their broken mother and return to their literary father. "Katya Apekina’s The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish has a dark sense of humor, and an interest in the soul. It's a stunningly accomplished book, and Apekina isn't afraid to grab her readers by the hand and take them to some very dark and very beautiful places." It's an unusual technique that Apekina uses to stunning effect, creating a kind of narrative tension that propels the novel forward. The structure, characters and storyline are all refreshingly original, and the writing is nothing short of gorgeous. " The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish is brilliantly structured, with multiple characters narrating the events of the novel. In this captivating debut, Katya Apekina disquietingly crooks the lines between fact and fantasy, between escape and freedom, and between love and obsession. Moving through a selection of first-person accounts and written with a sinister sense of humor, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish powerfully captures the quiet torment of two sisters craving the attention of a parent they can’t, and shouldn’t, have to themselves. The girls move in increasingly opposing and destructive directions as they struggle to cope with outsized pain, and as the history of Dennis and Marianne’s romantic past clicks into focus, the family fractures further. The girls, grieving and homesick, are at first wary of their father’s affection, but soon Mae and Edie’s close relationship begins to fall apart-Edie remains fiercely loyal to Marianne, convinced that Dennis is responsible for her mother’s downfall, while Mae, suffocated by her striking resemblances to her mother, feels pulled toward their father. After Marianne is unwillingly admitted to a mental hospital, Edie and Mae are forced to move from their childhood home in Louisiana to New York to live with their estranged father, Dennis, a former civil rights activist and literary figure on the other side of success. Upstairs, 14-year-old Mae had fallen into one of her trances, often a result of feeling too closely attuned to her mother’s dark moods. It’s 16-year-old Edie who finds their mother Marianne dangling in the living room from an old jump rope, puddle of urine on the floor, barely alive. * One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Fall - Vulture, Harper's BAZAAR, BuzzFeed News, Publishers Weekly, The Millions, Bustle, Fast Company * A Best Book of 2018 -Kirkus Reviews, BuzzFeed News, Entropy, LitReactor, LitHub, The Book Table * William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for Fiction, Shortlist. * VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, Finalist. * The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, Longlist. * Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Finalist.