The Sea-Glass Shore

by Julie Salmon Kelleher

When Jack, librarian and folklorist, meets Rona, she puts aside her sealskin to live as his human wife.

Jack knows all selkie stories end the same: the seal-woman finds her stolen skin and leaves. But he hasn’t stolen Rona’s skin, and they both believe their relationship is different. Making a family together seems easy and obvious—until time, children, and a threat to Rona’s home shore endanger everything they’ve promised to each other.

Most selkie stories are about the beginning or the end, but this one is about the middle. How do you live with a family past of people disappearing into the sea? How do you avoid the same wrong act everyone has committed before you? And what is love—for a spouse, a child, a mortal world—in the face of history?

Set in a mythic, contemporary Pacific Northwest shaped by Native and European storytelling, artist communes, and corporate fakelore, The Sea-Glass Shore is a domestic fable about the power of the past and the making of a daily present.

Genres: Fiction

342 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 1, 2026

About the author

Mostly on Goodreads for the 19th century novels. :)

Reviews

[KRISTEN CONNELL]

The Sea-Glass Shore is a beautifully atmospheric literary fantasy that takes the familiar selkie myth and turns it into something far more intimate: a story about marriage, family, inheritance, belonging, and the difficult weight of the past. Julie Salmon Kelleher’s decision to focus on the “middle” of the selkie story what happens after the romance and before the inevitable rupture gives the novel a fresh emotional center. Set against a mythic Pacific Northwest, the book blends folklore, environmental concerns, family tensions, and questions about what we owe the people and places we love. It already has strong early reader response, with a 4.75 Goodreads rating from four ratings and three reviews, ahead of its September 1, 2026 publication.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this book, and I can't wait for everyone else to experience it! It is haunting and lovely and mythical, while still grounded and realistic and relatable. I'll admit, I'm EXCEEDINGLY biased towards selkie stories, but I love that this particular one really wrestles with the deeper levels of having pasts you can't leave behind (or maybe can - but can you ever, really?), and what versions of ourselves we want our children to know. A beautiful book that I still think about long after completing it.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely unfamiliar with Selkie mythology, but thoroughly enjoyed reading a story like this one that showed the possibilities that arise when we think of humankind as part of larger community — one where interactions and things like love, family, and mortality are shared. I was reminded of other novelists who tried such parables (Rachel Ignalls, for example), and found this story as leaving me reflective about what is around me and the possibilities that exist. We don’t often get that opportunity and it was nice to read a story that delivers on such possibilities.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely prose, but the story never quite grabbed me as much as I'd hoped it would. The Author's Note that acknowledges the role the Lummi Nation has played in fish conservation in the Pacific Northwest was appreciated.

My thanks to the publisher for generously sending me an advanced copy of this book. 🦭

[Martine Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this from the author, and I just loved it. The gorgeous prose takes you an a haunting exploration of the bonds of love and family. I’ve actually never read anything like it before.

[Julie Kelleher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naturally this book is a favorite of mine. :)