A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea tells the story of two families on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the young woman who will call them both her own.
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America, where they hope she’ll stay safe.
Scared and angry, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys, who fold her into their world. She adjusts to their affluent lifestyle and grows close to both Gregory boys, one older and one younger, filling in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life in America feels more natural to her than her quiet, spare world back in England.
As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into summers on the coast in Maine, the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.
Desperate as she is not to leave the Gregorys behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go as she tries to move on, pursuing love and a life of her own.
As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.
Laura Spence-Ash’s debut novel, Beyond That, the Sea, was published by Celadon Books in March 2023. The novel has garnered praise from Meg Wolitzer, Ann Napolitano, and Claire Messud, among others. The New York Times said, "The plot of Laura Spence-Ash’s Beyond That, the Sea is rooted in the home-front upheavals of World War II, but it’s also a timeless exploration of what it means to create a family, of how dreams can die and be reborn in surprising ways." Laura was named one of the 10 Writers to Watch in Spring 2023 by Publishers Weekly. The novel was chosen as a GMA Buzz Pick, an Indie Next Pick for April 2023, and it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Laura’s short fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. She was the founding editor of CRAFT, an online literary journal, and she has taught for Rutgers University, the Princeton Adult School, and One Story. She has received fellowships and support from MacDowell, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark, where she received the Presidential Fellowship, and she lives in New Jersey.