"The Face of the Deep is a visionary work about diving, about writing and seeing, about opening oneself to the great watery world that shapes and encircles us."
— James D. Houston, author of
In the Ring of Fire and The Last Paradise

"The Face of the Deep is a marvelous, poetic achievement, the best book on diving that I have ever read, a remarkable meditation on the polysemous richness of the sea, and a fascinating log of a risky voyage of self-discovery."
— Steven Greenblatt,
Harvard University

In The Face of the Deep we float on and submerge below the ocean's liquid mirror, surfing and diving in "a continuum, concatenation, of sunrises, sunsets ... one's consciousness itself rising and falling with the swell." From villages in Samoa to haunts in Hawai'i, Thomas Farber tells of encounters in bars and backwaters as he explores Oceania's mythologies and literatures. From treasure hunters of Cocos Island to writers of the Literary Pacific, from Stevenson and Melville to the indigenous writings of Wendt and Hau'ofa, Farber navigates the complexities of the Pacific and its peoples. With the play and music of his language, Farber's shimmering reflections give us a fresh appreciation of the Pacific's depths.