Chatto dives into Damian Le Bas' 'enthralling' search for Atlantis

Chatto & Windus is set to publish Damian Le Bas’ newest, a grief memoir, love letter to the sea and "enthralling" search for Atlantis.

Clara Farmer acquired world all-languages rights to The Drowned Places from Eve White, and Molly Slight will publish in her role as Chatto editorial director. It is slated for an April 2025 release.

La Bas is the author of the award-winning The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain which Chatto published in 2018. The Drowned Places is his "mesmerising journey" into the world of diving – from beginner to seasoned underwater explorer – that morphs into a search for the lost city of Atlantis. He had always been enthralled by the myth of Atlantis and after the death of his father, and despite the taboo his Romany culture places on the ocean, he chanced upon a dive shop and took up scuba. 

This leads to "diving with seals in the Faroes, exploring submerged Roman ruins in Naples and mapping the sunken city of Port Royal, Jamaica".

Chatto added: "A spellbinding love letter to diving, The Drowned Places is also a profound examination of the power that myth has over us."

Slight called the book "a wonder and delight", saying: "Damian descends into the depths of ocean around the world, expecting to find fascinating remnants of human life and history, perhaps even the lost city of Atlantis. Instead, he discovers a whole underwater landscape brimming with life."

Le Bas added: "’Humans are a variety of fish’, as the palaeontologist Michael Coates said. Perhaps this is why we are drawn to the sea and its stories. In the wake of my father’s death, I was drawn powerfully to Atlantis, the most famous marine story of them all. As I was to find, it is both real and imaginary, historical yet mythical, fantastical but tangible."