"At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended."--from publisher's description.

It's the summer after senior year, and Briggs Henry is leaving behind his ex-girlfriend and his parents' money troubles for Lake Michigan, sandy beaches, working a summer job as a personal assistant, and living in a gorgeous Victorian on the shore. Then he gets there. And his eighty-four-year-old boss tells him to put on a suit for her funeral. "Lake effect" takes on a whole new meaning in a summer of social gaffes, beach volleyball games, and a drawer...

"Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths of absolute darkness, shipwrecked bodies, hidden places. Peter Rock's stunning auto-biographical novel begins in the 90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin, where the narrator, a man recently graduated from college, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and...