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by Deb Caletti
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?
"This gorgeous coming-of-age novel thoughtfully examines questions of identity, family, kindness, and a longing for connection. Framed by Harper's narrative voice, presented in what is often a whirlwind of nonstop thoughts, the story also deftly and empathetically engages head-on with anxiety...An epic tale of life, love, and identity." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"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 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." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Reminiscent of Natasha Friend's The Other F-Word and Robin Benway's Far From the Tree. Highly recommended." - School Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] heartwarming and authentic story that's packed with a collage of well-researched detail, people, and themes....will find itself right at home in collections with strong contemporary YA." - Booklist (starred review)
This information about The Epic Story of Every Living Thing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of nearly twenty books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. She lives with her family in Seattle.
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