Beyond That, the Sea

Beyond That, the Sea (2023) is a historical fiction novel by Laura Spence-Ash. It follows the story of Beatrix Thompson, an 11-year-old English girl sent to live in the US during World War II, and the two families that she connects over the years. The book explores themes of identity, family, and dreams versus reality.

Laura Spence-Ash is an American writer. She was the founding editor of CRAFT, an online literary journal, and has taught at several schools, including Rutgers University and the Princeton Adult School. While she previously published short fiction, Beyond That, the Sea is her debut novel, and it was chosen as an Indie Next Pick for April 2023, in addition to receiving a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

This guide is based on the Celadon Books Kindle edition.

Plot Summary

Beyond That, the Sea spans almost four decades and follows the life of two families—one in London, the other in Boston—linked together by Beatrix (“Bea”) Thompson. The story is told from the perspectives of eight different characters. It opens in 1940 as Bea, an 11-year-old English girl, is sent by her parents, Reginald and Millie, to live with the Gregorys, an American family in Boston, to keep her safe during World War II. The novel’s first part focuses on Bea’s time with the Gregorys until the end of the war. Ethan and Nancy Gregory, along with their sons, William and Gerald, become Bea’s family. She feels loved, safe, and at home with them and cherishes summers on the island in Maine that Nancy inherited from her family. While Bea lives a safe and happy life in the US, back in England, Millie struggles with regret and resentment toward Reginald for having forced her to send their daughter away. Millie misses Bea and worries that she won’t recognize her daughter when she finally returns.

While Bea is in Boston, Reginald dies of a heart attack, and Bea can’t attend the funeral because travel is too unsafe. Over time, Millie begins dating and eventually remarries a much younger man, Tommy, who was a fighter pilot in the war. Tommy helps arrange for Bea’s return to London after the war ends. By the time Bea must leave, however, she’s reluctant to return to London: The US and the Gregorys feel like home to her, and she has started a secret romantic relationship with William. Before she leaves, she tells him to move on because continuing their relationship is too difficult given the distance between them.

The novel’s second part spans a few days in August 1951. William is in Europe, traveling with a friend, when he receives news from Nancy that Ethan has died of a heart attack. Although he didn’t originally plan to stop in London to visit Bea, he decides to do so and spends a couple days with her before he must return home. To Bea, who received the news of Ethan’s death from Nancy and is deeply saddened, William’s arrival is a welcome surprise, and the two fill each other in on their lives. Bea is now a nursery school teacher, while William graduated from Harvard and now works an office job. He’s engaged, and his fiancée, Rose, is pregnant with their first child. On William’s first night in London, he and Bea sleep together. Bea shows him around town the next day, and the two realize that they’ve grown into different people and don’t belong together anymore. Millie’s unexpected early return from a vacation prevents William from staying with Bea the second night, and she sees him off at the train station the next morning instead. William resolves not to tell anyone about his time in London.

The third part of the book opens in 1960 and spans the next half decade. Millie’s marriage to Tommy failed, and she’s married for a third time. Her husband’s name is George. Bea is rising up the ranks at the nursery school where she works. Millie and Bea’s relationship has been strained and complicated ever since Bea returned from the US years ago, and Millie’s marriage to Tommy didn’t help. Eventually, Millie’s marriage with George fails too. In an attempt to heal things, Millie suggests a mother-daughter trip to New York and Boston; Bea agrees to travel to New York but doesn’t want to visit Boston because she doesn’t think of the place or the Gregorys as parts of her life anymore.

Gerald returns to Boston from California, where he has spent the last few years studying and working as a counselor; he’s far more settled and surer of himself than he was in his youth. William is married to Rose, has two children, and has a dead-end job; he’s increasingly discontent with his life and misses Maine and the house, which the family had to sell years ago. He spends several Saturday nights going out on his own, and his marriage to Rose is strained. In the early hours on a Sunday morning, while returning home after drinking, William crashes the car and dies. Millie insists that Bea go to Boston for the funeral, and Bea reconnects with Gerald and Nancy, meets Rose, and spends time with William’s children. After returning home, she begins to open up to Millie about her time in the US as a child, and Millie makes peace with the decision she and Reginald made years ago to send Bea away. Millie and Bea repair their relationship, and Millie eventually marries for a fourth time, to an older man named Alan.

Gerald continues working in education and becomes involved in a civil rights case, which he and Bea correspond about often. She invites him to Millie’s wedding, and Gerald and Nancy both travel to London and spend time with Millie and Bea. Millie recognizes the strength of the rekindled relationship between Bea and Gerald, and when the Gregorys invite Bea to visit them for Easter, Millie urges her to go. She knows about what happened between William and Bea, and she counsels her daughter that first love or young love isn’t the only right kind of love. Bea visits the Gregorys again, and she and Gerald grow closer. Gerald, who always had feelings for Bea, asks her about William’s London visit, and she tells him that nothing happened between them. In addition, she confesses to Gerald that being with the Gregorys is what truly feels like home to her. The night before she’s due to return to the US, Gerald proposes to her, and she accepts. The Epilogue, set in 1977, reveals that Bea and Gerald have bought back the house in Maine, to Nancy’s delight. They spend their first summer there the year that their daughter, Nell, turns 11; William’s children, too, plan a visit to celebrate what would have been their father’s 50th birthday.