The Epic Story of Every Living Thing
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning author of A Heart in a Body in The World comes a gorgeous and fiercely feminist young adult novel. When a teen travels to Hawaii to track down her sperm donor father, she discovers the truth about him, about the sunken shipwreck that’s become his obsession, and most of all about herself.
Harper Proulx has lived her whole life with unanswered questions about her anonymous sperm donor father. She's convinced that without knowing him, she can't know herself. When a chance Instagram post connects Harper to a half sibling, that connection yields many more and ultimately leads Harper to uncover her father's identity.
So, fresh from a painful breakup and still reeling with anxiety that reached a lifetime high during the pandemic, Harper joins her newfound half siblings on a voyage to Hawaii to face their father. The events of that summer, and the man they discover—a charismatic deep-sea diver obsessed with solving the mystery of a fragile sunken shipwreck—will force Harper to face some even bigger questions: Who is she? Is she her DNA, her experiences, her successes, her failures? Is she the things she loves—or the things she hates? Who she is in dark times? Who she might become after them?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seventeen-year-old Harper Proulx is practiced at internet sleuthing, taking Instagram selfies that make her look adventurous and approachable, and interacting with her steadily growing social media following. She's not so good at being present in the world without her phone, which she uses to help allay her fears surrounding Covid, distract herself from her mother's perfectionism, and idly search for her sperm donor father. When someone who inexplicably looks just like Harper contacts her via Instagram, she learns that she has three half siblings: Dario, Simone, and Wyatt, all conceived from the same sperm donor as Harper. Together, the teens become embroiled in an epic pursuit for their biological father that leads them to Hawaii. Excerpts from 19th-century letters, journals, and newspapers included at the beginning of each present-day chapter detail a seafaring expedition whose inclusion—and subsequent narrative convergence—is both mysterious and enthralling. It's impossible not to cheer for Harper's sincere voice as she comes into her own, working to overcome her fears, manage her anxieties, and stop hiding in plain sight. Caletti's (One Great Lie) bighearted novel, which endorses the wonders of being present in the world rather than existing exclusively online, uses two seemingly perpendicular voyages to expertly navigate themes of belonging, connection, family, and identity. Most characters cue as white; Simone's Israeli and French mother has dark skin. Ages 14–up.
