Fuqua's (The Reappearance of Sam Webber
) tender and poignant story takes place in a small Virginia town in 1953, as the Korean War comes to an end and tragedy looms on the horizon for one family. Carter Johnston, raised on a steady diet of comic books, idolizes superhero Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and secretly believes that his mother comes from the underwater city of Atlantis. His father encourages these fantasies: "That's the kind of high-minded daydreaming I always respected," he tells Carter. "You reach and reach and enjoy the reaching, because it's all there is." Mr. Johnston is fighting an unnamed disease and gradually losing his strength; in the summer heat, he begins sleeping in the town's car dealership, one of the few buildings with air conditioning. Carter and his older sister, Minnie, witness their father's deterioration, and they struggle to maintain the hope that he will get better. In desperation, Carter tries to swim an impossible distance to prove to his father that "if you want something bad enough, it'll happen"—and, heartbreakingly, learns that desire isn't always enough. Fuqua goes to great length exploring both Carter's devotion to his father and Carter's soul-deep sadness. At the end he grants the characters not happiness but wisdom, a satisfying ending for a quiet and well-wrought book. Ages 10-13. (Apr.)
