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Everything to the Sea
- Author
- Alicia Upano
- Narrator
- Barrie Kealoha
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 14 July 2026
- Run Time
- 10 hours 24 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
‘The kind of talent that appears once in a generation’ JUNOT DIAZ
‘A story that tests and redefines every form of loyalty: to love, to family, to land, to the future’ AUBE REY LESCURE
‘A survival story, a coming-of-age story, and a love story’ CARO CLAIRE BURKE
‘Irresistible ... I was utterly entranced’ JENNIE GODFREY
THIS IS HOW THE STORY OF JANE AND KENJI GOES.
Home in Hilo, Hawai‘i for one final summer, Jane is working and saving for her senior year before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesn’t remember Kenji. To Kenji, she’s unforgettable: Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks.
THEY WILL FALL IN LOVE.
Jane tells herself it’s only a fling – one perfect, carefree summer, on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an architect and moving to the continent. But as the days pass, the pair find themselves falling hard into first love.
AND THEN EVERYTHING WILL VANISH.
Then tragedy strikes – when a tsunami destroys much of Hilo, leaving both Jane and Kenji convulsed with grief. While Jane leaves, unable to look back, Kenji stays, bound by duty to rebuild their community.
WHEN ALL IS LOST, HOW DO WE FIND OUR WAY HOME?
Seven years later, Jane and Kenji collide again – and find that the past is not as easily laid to rest as they thought.
A decade-long story of home and belonging, destruction and renewal, betrayal and forgiveness, Everything to the Sea is an unforgettable love story - about what it means to rebuild a life worthy of what was lost.
‘Compassionate and merciless, beautiful and devastating, honest and hopeful’ JULIA PHILLIPS
‘Tender, gut wrenching and propulsive, a balm for the soul’ HARRIET CONSTABLE
‘Both a love story and a testament to the power of community’ CHLOE BENJAMIN
READERS LOVE EVERYTHING TO THE SEA
‘I loved this book'
‘Incredible ... I can't wait for more readers to fall in love with it'
‘I RACED through this ... Heartbreaking, uplifting, life-affirming!'
‘This is why I love to read ... I would recommend in particular to anyone who enjoyed Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’
Critics Review
-
I was utterly entranced by this beautiful novel. Expansive, yet deeply personal, it moves seamlessly between themes of grief, love, family, and duty with an authenticity and humanness that is irresistible
JENNIE GODFREY
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The gorgeous debut by Upano throws Jane - who is home on the island of Hilo, Hawaii, for one last summer before becoming an architect - together with Kenji, who remembers her from high school. The intoxication of unexpected first love is cut brutally short by a tsunami that destroys much of the island and forces hard decisions
IRISH INDEPENDENT
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Both storm and siren-song, a profoundly moving debut full of calamities, heartbreaks and boundless sweeping love. Alicia Upano is the kind of talent that appears once in a generation
JUNOT DIAZ
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This is the rare novel that activates all of your senses. It's a survival story, a coming-of-age story, and a love story. Each thread left me breathless - and Upano wove it all together into a novel that will stay with me for a long time
CARO CLAIRE BURKE
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A tender, beautifully written story of love, loss and the weight of home
WOMAN & HOME
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Alicia Upano’s sensitive and deeply-felt debut explores the aftermath - personal, cultural, and environmental - of a crisis in one Hawai’i town. Both a love story and a testament to the power of community, Everything to the Sea offers a meditation on grief as well as a hopeful vision of rebuilding
CHLOE BENJAMIN
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The type of story that is so necessary for humanity at this moment, brimming full of compassion, which teaches us to be gentle with ourselves in the aftermath of spectacular tragedy. I couldn’t stop reading and found myself thinking about Kenji and Jane in the moments I was away from the book. Tender, gut wrenching and propulsive, Everything to the Sea is balm for the soul. It's a powerful love story and ultimately a life affirming tale of what can grow out tremendous loss - but only if we can learn to forgive ourselves
HARRIET CONSTABLE
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With controlled, incisive prose, Alicia Upano harnesses and unleashes the fury of nature and life-defining love - and what happens when the two come in opposition. Hyper-rooted in place and the social fabric of an island community, Everything to the Sea is a story of unthinkable upheaval that tests and redefines every form of loyalty: to love, to family, to land, to the future. An arresting, profound, and fiercely beautiful debut
AUBE REY LESCURE
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With all the force of a tidal wave and the tenderness of a romance, Everything to the Sea tells two equally powerful stories of an island community and two young lovers, whose fates are swept together by a tsunami. At once epic and human-scale, this novel places our lives, families, passions, and tragedies within a turbulent landscape. It is compassionate and merciless, beautiful and devastating, honest and ultimately hopeful. Alicia Upano has made an extraordinary debut
JULIA PHILLIPS
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With equal parts wisdom and wit, Everything to the Sea tells about love as it’s felt when frustrated or betrayed in the face of too many other needed and urgent things, and the many ways that one finds family in surprising, beautiful turns. Alicia Upano’s striking debut will simultaneously quicken your pulse and force you to slow down, take a deep breath - this is a life-affirming, heartbreaking novel you won’t want to miss
JEAN CHEN HO
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Everything to the Sea is an epic and deeply moving love story, as much about how grief changes us as it is about how great love can do the same. In stunning and stylish prose, Alicia Upano follows the aftermath of tragedy – survival, recovery, and transformation – taking up the question of what we owe to the places and people we call home
KRISTIANA KAHAKAUWILA
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Sweeping through time and across distance, Everything to the Sea is a beautiful and soul-stirring novel about the way that forces beyond our control can ravage a place or a landscape but not, ultimately, the heart
CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ
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This deeply emotional epic of undying love follows Hawaiian lovers Jane and Kenji in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami. A grieving Jane vows never to return as Kenji works to rebuild their hometown
PEOPLE
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An incredlbly powerful debut
SAGA
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If only I could read the ending again for the first time
BUZZ MAGAZINE
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A nuanced literary romance, with lively, well-observed characterisation, understated humour, and a narrative that draws force from the conflict of values between the lovers
SPECTRUM
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The debut novel of Hawaiian-born Alicia Upano is a tale of regret and remembrance, home-building and homecoming, betrayal and forgiveness
THE CANBERRA TIMES
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Emotional, raw and beautifully crafted
NORTHERN BEACH MUMS
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Alicia Upano
- Narrator
- Barrie Kealoha
- Duration
- 10 hours 24 minutes
- Release Date
- 14 July 2026
- ISBN
- 9781526687814
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Narrative theme: coming of age, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Narrative theme: sense of place, Narrative theme: identity / belonging, Climate change, Adventure / action fiction
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano, read by Barrie Kealoha‘The kind of talent that appears once in a generation’ JUNOT DIAZ‘A story that tests and redefines every form of loyalty: to love, to family, to land, to the future’ AUBE REY LESCURE‘A survival story, a coming-of-age story, and a love story’ CARO CLAIRE BURKE‘Irresistible ... I was utterly entranced’ JENNIE GODFREYTHIS IS HOW THE STORY OF JANE AND KENJI GOES.Home in Hilo, Hawai‘i for one final summer, Jane is working and saving for her senior year before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesn’t remember Kenji. To Kenji, she’s unforgettable: Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks. THEY WILL FALL IN LOVE.Jane tells herself it’s only a fling – one perfect, carefree summer, on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an architect and moving to the continent. But as the days pass, the pair find themselves falling hard into first love. AND THEN EVERYTHING WILL VANISH.Then tragedy strikes – when a tsunami destroys much of Hilo, leaving both Jane and Kenji convulsed with grief. While Jane leaves, unable to look back, Kenji stays, bound by duty to rebuild their community.WHEN ALL IS LOST, HOW DO WE FIND OUR WAY HOME?Seven years later, Jane and Kenji collide again – and find that the past is not as easily laid to rest as they thought.A decade-long story of home and belonging, destruction and renewal, betrayal and forgiveness, Everything to the Sea is an unforgettable love story - about what it means to rebuild a life worthy of what was lost.‘Compassionate and merciless, beautiful and devastating, honest and hopeful’ JULIA PHILLIPS‘Tender, gut wrenching and propulsive, a balm for the soul’ HARRIET CONSTABLE‘Both a love story and a testament to the power of community’ CHLOE BENJAMINREADERS LOVE EVERYTHING TO THE SEA‘I loved this book' ‘Incredible ... I can't wait for more readers to fall in love with it' ‘I RACED through this ... Heartbreaking, uplifting, life-affirming!' ‘This is why I love to read ... I would recommend in particular to anyone who enjoyed Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’
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