Challenger Deep

Caden Bosch is a talented, funny teenager whose mind is beginning to come apart. In one thread of the book he grows convinced a classmate wants to kill him and starts walking for miles to outrun his own thoughts, frightening the people who love him. In a parallel thread he is a sailor aboard a galleon bound for the Challenger Deep, the deepest trench in the ocean, taking orders from a one-eyed captain and a scheming parrot. The two stories are one mind seen from inside and out as schizophrenia takes hold and Caden enters a hospital. Drawing on his own son's experience, Shusterman renders psychosis and the slow climb toward stability with honesty, humor, and care.