The Breaking of a Wave

Luna loves the sea and the gifts she finds every day on the shore. But one day a wave sends her life adrift, in this touching, funny novel about grief, love, and friendship

Thirteen-year-old Luna lives in a small town on the coast of Tuscany. She is smart and funny. And she is albino. When her brother Luca drowns in a surfing accident, Luna's mother retreats into herself. At school, stricken by her loss yet determined to carry on, Luna makes a new friend and ally, the eccentric Zot, a boy from Chernobyl. Luna believes that Luca still speaks to her through a whale bone washed up on the shore. In truth, this is part of a ruse that has been orchestrated by Sandro, Luca's former teacher, as a misguided way to assuage the guilt he carries with him.
Luna's fantasies clash with the lies-even the well-intentioned ones-of the adult world in this touching, droll novel by the author of Live Bait (Other Press, 2014). Luna is an unforgettable character-vivid, stubborn, highly imaginative, determined to become her own person-who will appeal to readers of all ages.