Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano

Part riveting love story, part coming-of-age tale, Everything to the Sea is a breathtaking debut novel spanning years and shores after a sudden tsunami devastates the island of Hawai‘i and cuts short a young couple’s budding romance—a deeply moving testament to the catastrophes love can endure.

Pre-Order

“…an extraordinary debut.”
—Julia Phillips

“…epic and deeply moving...”
—Kristiana Kahakauwila

“…a life-affirming, heartbreaking novel
you won’t want to miss.”
— Jean Chen Ho

A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2026

Everything to the Sea

William Morrow/HarperCollins (US and Canada) and Bloomsbury (UK)

Forthcoming: July 14, 2026

This is how the story goes: Jane will fall in love. And then all of this will vanish.

Home for one final summer, Jane is working and saving cash for her senior year of college before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesn’t remember Kenji, but he quickly becomes someone she can’t forget: square jaw, a dimple in his cheek. A Hilo boy. To Kenji, she’s Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks. 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.

Then a tsunami sweeps their families out to sea, and their all-consuming affair breaks with the weight of grief, pulling them in opposite directions. Kenji remains in Hawai‘i, bound by duty to rebuild their hometown. Jane, shattered by the loss, follows her best friend to California. For seven years, an ocean lies between them, until Jane and Kenji meet on another coast . . .

author Alicia Upano

Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award Hawai‘i, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholarship. Her short fiction has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology, and more. After living in Asia and both U.S. continental coasts, she now resides on O‘ahu with her family.

Contact

For literary inquiries, contact Lisa Grubka at UTA.

For US inquiries regarding Everything to the Sea, contact the William Morrow/HarperCollins publicity team.

For UK/AUS inquiries regarding Everything to the Sea, contact the Bloomsbury publicity team.

For Media inquiries regarding Everything to the Sea, contact Kristina Moore at UTA

For all other inquiries, please use the following form.