The odd sea

the long version

It's a sunny, late spring morning when sixteen-year-old Ethan Shumway walks down his driveway, turns the bend, and vanishes without a trace. A gifted athlete and musician, he leaves a wake of family and friends desperately searching for him and trying to make sense of what has happened. But it is through the eyes of Philip, Ethan's younger brother, that the story of The Odd Sea unfolds. It is Philip who will turn your heart: smart, funny, emotionally wise yet somewhat lost as he grapples with what his family calls the Odd Sea - the unfathomable place where people and things go when they disappear. Philip wandering around "not-finding" Ethan, smelling his insomniac mother's midnight baking, watching his father fall apart and put himself back together. Philip seeking out Ethan's girlfriend, Melissa, Philip confronting Victoria, Ethan's equivocal and sexually radiant mentor. Philip observing the world with a savvy that will break your heart and with a level of feeling that is almost irresistible.