“Drawing on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster and her own experiences as a drilling engineer from Sudan, like her protagonist, Abdel-Magied offers fascinating technical details, intriguing personalities, and dramatic showdowns within the precarious confines of an oil rig beset by the ever-changing sea and winds. The result is an involving, suspenseful, psychologically intricate, and thought-provoking tale of humankind’s hubris and nature’s might.”

– Booklist

“Drawing on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-spill disaster and her own experiences as a drilling engineer from Sudan, like her protagonist, Abdel-Magied offers fascinating technical details, intriguing personalities, and dramatic showdowns within the precarious confines of an oil rig beset by the ever-changing sea and winds. The result is an involving, suspenseful, psychologically intricate, and thought-provoking tale of humankind’s hubris and nature’s might.”

– Booklist

“Propulsive and engrossing and deeply fascinating, Abdel-Magied's At Sea is a feat of vivid world-building, of characters sketched with such empathy and with a poet's economy of language. My heart was in my throat the entire time. This story will haunt me forever.”

– Safia Elhillo, author of Home Is Not a Country

“With a kick-ass heroine, and moving between Sudan and Scotland, Australia and a rig on the verge of blowout, At Sea captures the high stakes, drama and the claustrophobia of life off-shore in the service of Big Oil.”

– Gavin Francis, author of Empire Antarctica

“Abdel-Magied is a writer who pays attention. Suspenseful, moving, often surprising and even funny, At Sea is an engrossing novel, and its protagonist Zainab is full of heart and charm. Abdel-Magied deftly charts the complex dynamics between characters in a world where games of power and ego can have devastating and perilous consequences.”

– Fatima Mirza, author of A Place for Us, a New York Times bestseller

"Written with the urgency of a thriller and the distress signal of an allegory, At Sea is a smart, razor-sharp takedown of the machismo of big oil and what it is to be a woman operating in such a hostile industry. Abdel-Magied tells this compelling story with a fresh, authoritative voice."

– Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives 

"Zesty, intense and thrilling.  At Sea is a wonderful achievement. This is a jarring exposé of the satisfactions and brutality of the workplace—the joys of career success, the power struggles with colleagues, the humiliations and bruised sense of worth. We witness how ambition can become a trap, and how structure and mental absorption can be an escape from family difficulties."

– Leila Aboulela, author of River Spirit, a New York Times notable book

"A thrilling and emotionally complex ride.  At Sea is a story of gender and power politics and the cost of capitalism and unhealed wounds. It is a masterclass in drawing a reader into worlds unknown and making it consume their every waking thought. Abdel-Magied has written a carefully composed novel that pulls no punches as it deftly explores the painful reality of life on the rig that is both compelling and captivating."

– Ore Abaje-Williams, author of The Three of Us

"Fast-paced, gripping and gloriously entertaining. At Sea exposes the social dynamics we all recognise— power, gender, and ambition."

– Tilly Lawless, author of Nothing But My Body