The Swift Dark Tide tracks the struggle of loving a man and a woman at the same time. Taking us to her roots in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, and back to the onrushing present in Melbourne, Australia, Katia Ariel introduces us to a lineage of wild and strident women and a few beautifully nuanced men. She invites us into home and heart, to witness love, loss and joy, motherhood, daughterhood and the urgent wildness of the body.Part memoir, part love letter to a woman whose presence broke open a marriage and a whole way of being, The Swift Dark Tide tells the story of a life breaking under the pressure of an ungovernable heart until the light dawns on a messy and wonderful new selfhood.‘A lyrical memoir of family, inheritance and queer becoming. Ariel writes with the eyes of a poet and the heart of a true romantic. Her sentences are crystalline marvels, gifts to be savoured and held up to the light.’ — Yves Rees, author of All About Yves‘Alive with passion and pain, exquisitely metaphorical, Ariel's memoir is a stunning feat of honesty. Not only a captivating story of one relationship and its breathtaking beginnings, it is also a journey of family, migration, motherhood, and entrusting ourselves to our hearts and bodies. The writing pulses with love, drawing meticulous connections between place, family and desire spanning continents, bodies and generations. Immerse yourself in Ariel's richly poetic world and savour its visceral impact.’ — Katherine Brabon, author of The Shut Ins and The Memory Artist