A 52-Hertz Whale

(Hardback)

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Description

It appears to be the only individual emitting a call at this frequency and hence, has been described as the world's loneliest whale.--Wikipedia

So here's how it all starts: James, a high school freshman, is worried that the young humpback whale he tracks online has separated from its pod. So naturally he emails Darren, the twentysomething would-be filmmaker who volunteered in James's special education program back in middle school. Of course, Darren is useless on the subject of whales, but he's got nothing but time, given that the only girl he could ever love dumped him. And fetching lattes for his boss has him close to walking out on his movie dream and boomeranging right back to his childhood bedroom.

So why not reply to a random email from Whale Boy

Predictably, this thread of emails leads to a lot of bizarre stuff, including a yeti suit, drug smuggling, widows, a major documentary filmmaking opportunity, first love, a graveyard, damaged echolocation, estranged siblings, restraining orders, choke holds, emergency dentistry...and then maybe ends with something like understanding.

See, it turns out that the thing that binds people together most is their fear that nothing binds them together at all.

Reviews

Read this book because it's funny and suspenseful and because you will recognize lots of people you know and even yourself in its pages. But read it most of all to remember that at some point in our lives, we are all like lost whales and the only thing that will save us are true friends. --Francisco X. Stork, author of Marcelo in the Real World

Told through the exchange of conversational emails, Sommer and Tighman's debut features relatable characters in a slightly fantastical yet wholly realistic series of situations. James Turner is a socially awkward high school freshman in Philadelphia, caught between his obsession with whales and a disintegrating childhood friendship. When his sponsored juvenile whale, Salt, breaks away from his pod and engages in abnormal behavior, James blindly reaches out to Darren Olmstead, a former volunteer from his middle school Resource Room. Darren is a recent college graduate with a film degree, working in Los Angeles and struggling to recover from a failed relationship. What follows is a vibrant, in-depth exploration of the parallel paths the lives of these two young men take, highlighting the relative anonymity of computer communication in contrast to the facades presented to the world. The voices and stories of secondary characters lend depth and a more well-rounded perspective. Flashes of humor and empathy are interspersed with exposition from others' viewpoints, creating a cohesive, emotionally intimate story that sensitively handles loss, grief, accomplishment, and the not-so-simple act of growing up.--Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Bill Sommer holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Rainier Writers Workshop and a bachelor's in jazz performance from the University of Miami. Born and raised in St. Louis, he now lives in Atlanta. Natalie Tilghman holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Rainier Writers Workshop. She lives in Glenview, Illinois, with her husband, two sons, and their Chihuahua.