num_pages: 320
description: The dryly precocious soon-to-be-fifteen-year-old hero of this engagingly offbeat debut novel Oliver Tate lives in the seaside town of Swansea Wales. At once a self-styled social scientist a spy in the baffling adult world surrounding him and a budding hormone-driven emotional explorer Oliver is stealthily (and perhaps a bit more nervously than hed ever admit) nosing his way forward through the murky and uniquely perilous waters of adolescence. His objectives? Uncovering the secrets behind his parents teetering marriage unraveling the mystery that is his alluring and equally quirky classmate Jordana Bevan and understanding where he fits in among the pansexuals Zoroastrians and other mystifying fascinating beings in his orbit.Its in my interests to know about my parents mental problems he reasons. Thus when he discovers that his affable dad is quietly struggling with depression Oliver marshals all the daytime-TV pop-psychology wisdom at his commandnot to mention his formidable uninhibited powers of imaginationin order to put things right again. But a covert expedition into the mysterious territory of middle-aged malaise is bound to be tricky business for a teenager with more to learn about the agonies and ecstasies of life than a pocket thesaurus and his worldly school chum Chips can teach him. Ready or not however Oliver is about to get a crash course. His awkwardly torrid and tender relationship with Jordana is hurtling at the speed of teenage passion toward the inevitable magic moment . . . and whatever lies beyond. And his boy-detective exploits have set him on a collision course with the New Age old flame whos resurfaced in his mothers life to lead her into temptation with lessons in surfing self-defense . . . and maybe seduction. Struggling to buoy his parents wedded bliss deep-six his own virginity and sound the depths of heartache happiness and the business of being human whats a lad to do? Poised precariously on the cusp of innocence and experience yesterdays daydreams and tomorrows decisions Oliver Tate aims to damn the torpedoes and take the plunge.
language: English
title: Submarine
publisher: Random House