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We Run the Tides

A Novel

by Vendela Vida

Narrator Marin Ireland

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Length 6 hours 34 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Wow, this book was hard to put down! The story feels so familiar, yet full of unexpected twists and turns. I was immersed in the beautiful and tumultuous world of these girls on the brink of adulthood. A fun, mysterious, compelling, and ultimately profound novel about power, truth, and growing up.”
— Sarah Fischer • Downbound Books

Bookseller recommendation

“We Run the Tides is a coming-of-age story, written by Vendela Vida with two teenage girls at the heart of it. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola (Maria Fabiola is only referred to by both her names, never one, which isn’t the weirdest thing about the book) are in a lifelong duel. They’re both drawn to each other, Eulabee because she needs others to see how toxic Maria is even as she still craves her company, and Maria because she needs adoration from her peers. Their fallout leads to multiple kidnappings, being expelled from school, and a dead boyfriend (possibly). It’s a quiet book but it’s endlessly readable. The narrator is the perfect voice for Eulabee and her trying to make sense out of what she's seeing.”
— Caren • Jackson Heights Books

Bookseller recommendation

“We Run the Tides kept me listening late into the night—actually into the morning. I wanted to know what Eulabee would choose: the truth or keeping her friend, and what would be the consequences of that choice and those she had already made. In this coming-of-age story, Eulabee navigates the world of her posh San Francisco neighborhood, exclusive girls’ school, and friends with more wealth than she. An unremarkable encounter with a man asking Eulabee and her friends what time it is on their walk to school one morning begins a series of events that become serious and even tragic. In the eighth grade in the early 1980s, the girls are transitioning from childhood, still protected and privileged, and entering a world changing as rapidly and dramatically as they are. Eulabee narrates the novel and through her eyes, we come to know the stories and secrets of the other characters. The novel’s resolution comes nearly 40 years later, in 2019, with a chance meeting between Eulabee and Maria Fabiola. This is a thoroughly enjoyable novel of adolescent female friendship, accurately reflecting the inherent joys, pains, and betrayals. It will resonate with many of us of a ‘certain age.’”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store

Summary
About the author

An achingly beautiful and wickedly funny story of female friendship, betrayal, and a mysterious disappearance, set in the changing landscape of San Francisco

Teenage Eulabee and her alluring best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy, oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know the ins and outs of the homes and beaches, Sea Cliff’s hidden corners and eccentric characters—as well as the swanky all-girls’ school they attend. Their lives move along uneventfully, with afternoon walks by the ocean and weekend sleepovers. Then everything changes. Eulabee and Maria Fabiola have a disagreement about what they did or didn’t witness on the way to school one morning, and this creates a schism in their friendship. The rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance—a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.

Suspenseful and poignant, We Run the Tides is Vendela Vida’s masterpiece depiction of an inimitable place on the brink of radical transformation. Pre–tech boom San Francisco finds its mirror in the changing lives of the teenage girls at the center of this story of innocence lost, the pain of too much freedom, and the struggle to find one’s authentic self. Told with a gimlet eye and great warmth, We Run the Tides is both a gripping mystery and a tribute to the wonders of youth, in all its beauty and confusion.

Fiction Fiction - Literary

Vendela Vida is the award-winning author of six books, including Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty. Her new novel, We Run the Tides, will be published by Ecco on February 9, 2021. She is a founding editor of The Believer and coeditor of The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers and Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence, a collection of interviews with musicians. She was a founding board member of 826 Valencia, the San Francisco writing center for youth, and lives in the Bay Area with her family.