Description

‘Literary and learned. It goes deep’ AMY LIPTROT
‘The most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys’ KATE HUMBLE
‘The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read’ MENSUN BOUND

Damian Le Bas explores the meaning we find in sunken ruins around the world in this spellbinding love letter to diving.

Thousands of years ago, an island off the Straits of Gibraltar went to war with ancient Athens. The battle was lost, and an earthquake cleaved the land in two. Overnight the island sank beneath the waves – or so legend tells.

As a young boy, Damian Le Bas was captivated by the story of the lost city of Atlantis. As an adult, he dreams of diving to discover its ruins. After the death of his father, torn between his lifelong desire and the taboo his Romany culture places on the ocean, he comes by chance across a dive shop. He can’t help but go in.

Under the waves, Damian enters a breathtaking world. As he masters the skills of this exhilarating sport, diving with seals in the Farne Islands, exploring submerged Roman ruins in Naples and mapping the sunken city of Port Royal in Jamaica, he is entranced anew, by wonders both man-made and natural.

Plato’s writings on Atlantis were a parable about the hubris of humankind; in witnessing our effects on oceans and ocean communities, Damian finds echoes of this in the modern world.

Publisher Review

Loss, risk, adventure and redemption. Le Bas has written the most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys — KATE HUMBLE, author of A Year of Living Simply An enthralling exploration of the liminal by one of the most exciting writers around. A breathtakingly good book — TRISTAN GOOLEY, author of How to Read a Tree The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read. But it is not about diving as a sport; it is about diving as an accessway to submerged landscapes, the festival of life that inhabits them and, above all, the drowned ruins of lost civilisations — MENSUN BOUND, author of The Ship Beneath the Ice Le Bas goes on a compelling dual journey in this book, both historical and personal. His curiosity brings the ancient myths and stark realities of the ocean vividly to life. A various, rich exploration — SOPHIE ELMHIRST, author of Maurice and Maralyn I loved this book – a wonderful interweaving of diving and exploration with coming to terms with grief, beautifully written and endlessly fascinating. One of the best books that I have read in a long time — DAVID GIBBINS, author of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks A powerful and superbly profound book where myth and history meet personal journey through the prism of diving — ROB COWEN, author of Common Ground