Howard Roark Fox has spent most of his life apart from other people, choosing instead to dwell in the world of books and fictional characters. He has never understood the need for relationships with people or why he has to conform to everyday social customs. Then he meets Faye, a dark-haired beauty who ignites flames of desire in his empty heart. Faye longs to be married and have children, but she has stopped going out with men because each encounter leads to heartbreak. However, this peculiar man, Howard, who she meets on a gloomy, rainy afternoon in an Upper West Side coffee shop, manages to win her over. Despite Howard’s odd habits, he and Faye live contentedly together ... until the day he says the wrong thing, and she leaves. Years later, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, he realizes how barren his life has become and how much he misses Faye. As Howard’s goal becomes to “return to my good years with her,” he seeks the help of psychologists and “experts” in the field of alternate planes of existence, eventually stumbling upon and bringing to light a long-forgotten, shadowy mystery from his childhood.
This lyrically written dark romantic narrative shifts between scenes of heartbreaking realism and luminous, magical excursions to different times and places and versions of reality. Howard, Faye, and the other characters in this novel ring true and have the power to reach into the very soul of the reader. BLUE BLUE SEA succeeds in telling a riveting, sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-rending story while, at the same time, revealing fundamental truths about life, love, and the meaning of it all.
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