Shark Heart

'A fantastical, original and beautifully written novel' ANTHONY DOERR

By: Emily Habeck

Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Soneela Nankani

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last.

A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He's turning into a great white shark, and has less than a year left to live as a human. At first, Wren resists her husband's fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis fully transforms?

But as Lewis changes, day by day, Wren begins to make peace with the inevitable. After all, this isn't the first time she's lost a loved one.

An extraordinary novel of love, loss, hope and happiness, Shark Heart explores the shapes that love takes, in all its many forms, and asks us to ask ourselves: what makes us human?

'Every page bursts with heart' Anthony Doerr, author of All The Light We Cannot See

'Compelling, moving, lyrical' - Claire North, author of Ithaca and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August©2023 Emily Habeck

Critic reviews

Compelling, moving, lyrical

Shark Heart is a fantastical, original, and beautifully-written novel of abandonment, love, and Ovidian transformation. It explores illness, caretaking, devotion, magical thinking, and loss - and of course great white sharks - in ways that are funny, sad, and surprising. Every page bursts with heart

In Shark Heart, Emily Habeck doesn't shy away from the agony of goodbyes, or the torture that can accompany unexpected freedom. With an otherworldly tenderness, she reminds us that life will always demand that we give over to its momentum and adapt. The fact that these lessons are thrilling, hilarious, and effortless to read are the miracle of the book. I suspect I will ponder this book over and over; so rich with fantasy yet as frank and real as anything I've ever read

Shark Heart is one of those rare books that reaches right into you and reflects lived experience so exactly, and so poetically, that it feels like you're being seen. It wears its heart openly and unapologetically on its sleeve. Equal parts tenderly comedic and tragic, the book was a difficult one to read, but I'm so glad I did

It's quite a feat to weave such a wild speculative element into a story that feels fundamentally relatable, resonant, human. Yes, Shark Heart is the kind of delightfully original story I adore, and the sort of book I'll be pressing into the hands of friends with a vigorous nod. Yes, it actually works.

A beautifully written, heart-wringing story about love and change, about moving forward - as a shark always must - and what is lost and what is gained as we do so. Habeck has an extraordinary command of her writerly instrument, crafting sentence after sentence that feel effortless and yet are eloquent and penetrating and superb. This is the highlight of my reading-year

I loved Shark Heart with my whole heart. It's laugh-out-loud funny, yet cry-your-eyes-out profound. I don't use this word often, but it's genuinely a masterpiece

This is one of the best things I've read in years . . . I just want everyone in the world to read it (Bobby Palmer, author of ISAAC AND THE EGG)

Beautifully written in short, sharp chapters, this is a quirky, brilliant and powerful love story

An extraordinary tale . . . This year's most beguilingly strange love story

Despite the magical realism, at its core, Shark Heart is a book about loss and inevitable change in life. It will make you cry, but also leave you feeling hopeful as it explores the joy found after grief

Absorbing and affecting

Shark Heart is very much a novel rooted in everyday concerns such as love, loss and grief, with Lewis's animal transformation a metaphor for all sorts of necessary life changes

Sharks have feelings too

A gorgeous love story that will take you out of your comfort zone. it's hard to put down.