Reading Sarah Sasson’s debut novel, Tidelines (2024), is a cold-water plunge: her use of immersive imagery and intertwining character arcs induce a long-lasting catharsis. Compassionate and earnest, her portrayal of adolescent characters does not betray this young demographic; rather, she deftly constructs characters who take risks, fail, and persevere.
I sat down with Sasson to discuss her writing process and motivation to write Tidelines. Historically a poet and medical professional, writing a novel was a new frontier. “It was an experiment and a personal challenge”, she said, “the longest poem I’ve ever written”.
Tracing the lives of a brother and sister, the plot of Tidelines has a clear destination, with every incident pointing us in that direction. However, when Sasson embarked on the five year-long road to Tidelines, she “didn’t know where [she] was heading”.
“I knew I wanted to write a coming of age novel, and also to write about a scenario of ambiguous loss. I wrote it during a period of grief, and I empathised with families experiencing ambiguous loss”, she shared. For much of the book, the protagonist — Grub — is uncertain about her older brother’s whereabouts and safety. There is a powerful resolution, but Sasson confesses that she initially planned on leaving the reader in the dark.
I for one am glad she had a change of heart — Sasson instils individuality and detail in each character, such that readers cannot help but become emotionally invested. I felt at sea until she delivered a gut-punch ending.
Tidelines is careful to sidestep clichéd adolescent characters whilst exploring their appetite for risk-taking. Sasson shared, “Initially, Zed [the brother’s best friend] fell into a ‘bad guy’ stereotype. But then I looked at the story from Zed’s perspective — I had to honour what was going on in his life”. This empathetic approach created authentic characters, heightening the book’s digestible realism. Interrogating the nuclear family unit, Sasson also rendered resonant relationships between each character, experimenting with elements of duality, separation and parental projection — allowing each reader to identify with parallel relationships in their life, mapped in the book.
Sasson’s medical background clearly informs the novel’s keen interest in exploring “nature versus nuture”,and the neuropsychology of mental health and addiction. This scientific input is not heavy-handed, but blends seamlessly with the protagonist’s logical psyche.
Sasson’s background also shapes her writing style: the lyricism of a poet and precision of a doctor fuse to create unforgettable metaphors — the kind that enwrap you with an excited stillness on first read. Some gifts I will treasure include the description of a fetus as a “primordial astronaut”, or an older house as “an elderly relative that every year appeared more shrunken”. “In poetry, each word is so important”, she explained, “it was a rewarding training ground to write a novel.”
To me, Tidelines feels like a love letter to the landscape — natural phenomena, suburbia and the city’s bustle, even though this may have been subconscious: “I was more interested in characters than setting”, Sasson said. But ‘writing what you know’ often unearths feelings of affection. Sasson explained that she edited the first draft whilst living in Oxford, and this clarifying distance from Australia encouraged her to “tap into an otherworldly quality”. Her depiction of nature also synchronises with character growth; the protagonist’s relocation from nature-filled suburbia to a cramped inner-city apartment creates a shift from idyll to stress, underpinning a parallel transition in her characters’ psyches.
Many coming-of-age novels attempt to tinker with time — often at the risk of losing the reader or disrupting the connection between a character’s motivations and actions. Tidelines tactfully shifts between timelines, encouraging readers to play detective as Sasson gradually reveals details about Grub’s childhood which influence the circumstances of her young adulthood. This sustained my interest throughout the novel, classifying it as ‘unputdownable’.
I asked Sasson what’s coming next — now a published poet and novelist, she wears many literary hats. “I am very taken with the novel form, but also foraying into poetry again, I’d like to write more creative non-fiction”, she said.
Sasson has an interest in exploring similar themes in both prose and poetry: human relationships, memory and the human body — despite an acute awareness that the two forms require different approaches. “Prose needs to be more explicit, whereas poetry can be more abstract”, she said. Regardless of whichever path she pursues, Australian readers should expect writing that is tender and relevant.
Tidelines is formally a bildungsroman, but also a reminder that challenges are inescapable when growing up. A testament to familial loyalty and supportive female friendships, Tidelines is a guidebook for following hope’s tracks in the sand, no matter how many times the tide washes them away.
Tidelines is now available in bookstores.
