The Breaking of a Wave by Fabio Genovesi

Winner of the 2015 Strega Prize for Young Authors
A young girl struggles with her beloved brother's accidental death, her mother's depression, and fitting in at school in Fabio Genovesi's touching, funny, and imaginative new novel.
Thirteen-year-old Luna lives in a small town on the coast of Tuscany. She is smart and funny. When her beloved brother Luca drowns in a surfing accident, Luna's mother retreats into herself. At school, stricken by her loss yet determined to carry on, Luna makes a new friend and ally, the eccentric Zot, a boy from Chernobyl. Luna believes that Luca still speaks to her through a whale bone washed up on the nearby shore.
Luna's fantasies clash with the lies-even the well-intentioned ones-of the adult world in this touching, vibrant novel by the author of Live Bait. Luna is an unforgettable character-vivid, stubborn, highly imaginative, determined to become her own person.