The Breaking of a Wave

**Winner of the 2015 Strega Prize for Young Authors**

A young girl struggles with her beloved brother's accidental death, her mother's depression, and fitting in at school in Fabio Genovesi's touching, funny, and imaginative new novel.

Thirteen-year-old Luna lives in a small town on the coast of Tuscany. She is smart and funny. When her beloved 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 nearby shore.

Luna's fantasies clash with the lies–even the well-intentioned ones—of the adult world in this touching, vibrant novel by the author of *Live Bait*. Luna is an unforgettable character—vivid, stubborn, highly imaginative, determined to become her own person.