Bloomsbury USA
Available: 08/08/05
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 · 272 pages
978-1-58234-605-2
CDN $29.95 · cl

The Highest Tide

A Novel

Jim Lynch

Miles O’Malley steps off the page and inhabits the reader’s mind through the course of this novel and for a long time thereafter. Like Holden Caulfield or the teenage narrator of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Miles’ voice is wholly original and dead-on true.

Miles lives on Puget Sound and is enthralled by the sea and its creatures. When he becomes the first person to sight a live giant squid he is hailed as some sort of prophet. The media descend and everyone wants to hear what Miles has to say. But Miles is just a kid, a self-described “increasingly horny, speed-reading thirteen-year-old insomniac” who’s in love with the girl next door and obsessed with the writings of Rachel Carson. Over the course of a magical summer a dramatic sea change will occur, both for Miles and the coastline he loves, culminating in the highest tide in 100 years.

This beautifully written first novel is more than a coming-of-age story. It’s an environmental allegory as powerful as Life of Pi and the perfect book to take to the beach.

Jim Lynch (Olympia, Washington) is an award-winning journalist who has written for several North American newspapers and magazines.