The Book of Speculation A Novel

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead; his mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. One June day, a mysterious book arrives on Simon's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller. The book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, recording strange and magical events, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Simon soon discovers that generations of women in his family—all 'mermaids'—have drowned on July 24, a date that is only weeks away. As his sister, Enola, returns home, Simon must race against time to decode his family history and break the curse before it claims another life.

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