A young man finds an extraordinary statuette which drives him to steal his mother’s credit card and set off round the world to find the artist. It’s a coming-of-age tale, a quest novel and a magical journey in a young, hip style, with an interesting voice. You’ll love it or hate it but you should read it.
Sea Otters Gambolling in the Wild, Wild Surf Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Felix is bored and stressed. He’s stressed about his ‘A’ Level results, stressed about working for that mad old bag Mrs Pretzel, stressed about what the future holds. He’s also feeling mighty guilty about the possibly fatal combination of laxatives and scrabble tile (Z, ten points) he fed to Mrs P’s spaniel, Vespasian. But it’s not the stress or the guilt that initiates the bizarre quest that takes him half way around the world on a stolen debit card – it’s curiosity. Felix is very curious about a statue he finds in the permanent clearance sale at ‘The House of Crap’ – a statue depicting a fat man and a sea otter in sexual congress.
Sea Otters Gambolling in the Wild, Wild Surf is the story of where Felix’s curiosity takes him, to Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco; on a journey that challenges his preconceptions about the world, his plans for the future and his relationships with his family. Will he get home before his little sister discovers what he’s up to? What’ll happen to Vespasian? Will he get the passes he needs to get into University?
Born in 1969, John Bennett comes from Kingston-upon-Spey, a small village in Morayshire, in the north-east of Scotland. He lives in London. This is his first novel.
