Meridian 144

She is 50 feet underwater, scuba diving on an old sunken warship in the harbor of a Pacific island, which is about as far away as she can get from her unhappy divorce, a string of unfulfilling affairs and her persistent lack of conviction about her life. Kit Manning wonders if Tano Island will be for her a point of departure to somewhere better. Then everything turns a bright yellow, “the water like wrinkled amber foil.” Her new beau, an air force captain from the island’s base, swims down to her, frantic. “Fireball” he writes on a slate. The shock wave that follows is terrifying; it tips the sunken vessel over. When Kit surfaces alone, she returns to a devastated harbor and perhaps a decimated world. When she emerges from the sea, it is as if for the first time. Everything has changed. No one else can define her life anymore. . . or save it.