Otter Music

New York Times bestseller and Man Booker Prize finalist Karen Joy Fowler returns with a luminous, emotionally resonant story of a marine researcher grappling with whether ecosystems—and people—can truly be saved, set along the shimmering Santa Cruz coast.

Lainey Miller spends her days studying endangered wildlife, and her nights worrying about the slow unspooling of democracy. An introverted marine researcher studying sea otters Lainey felt reasonably happy with the post divorce life she’d made for herself in Santa Cruz until her beloved niece says with careful casualness: Mom thinks you don’t have any fun.

But who can have fun in a world where everything feels on the brink of collapse? Lainey’s brother jokes about her obsession with “perils’ but as wildfires rage, sea levels rise, and people seem content to bury their heads in the sand, Lainey’s word feels increasingly unpredictable. In gorgeous vignettes, Otter Music shares Lainey’s efforts to discover if she’s brave enough to want more from her own life. 

Sparky, wise, and disarmingly funny, Karen Joy Fowler’s new novel explores ways to find hope in the simple things—even amidst chaos—and how we might all summon the fortitude to move into the awaiting future with love, courage, and kindness, to ourselves and the planet.