The Losers at the Center of the Galaxy

A tuba-playing middle-schooler and his sister, who imitates jellyfish, are coping with the disappearance of their father, a former football player with CTE. As the siblings deal with this loss, each follows a separate way toward healing. The novel places their unusual habits alongside the family’s upheaval and includes moments of comedy amid its portrait of two children adjusting to their father’s absence.