Mermaid Prince

Where do you belong? On the edge of death and danger, to feel life flowing through you? Can you find shelter in a space not meant for you? When new people move into your life, will there still be enough room left for you? From the author of The Gods Lie and The Golden Sheep.

Mermaid Prince explores such complex themes in a series of short stories that highlight the beauty, wonder, pain, and loneliness that can come from feeling adrift in the world, as well as the joy that can accompany finding your own anchor amidst the seas of change. Mugi, a transfer student from Tokyo now living in a southern island of Japan, can stand the new sunburn and the bullying he receives at school. It's the ocean, the water that he doesn't know how to swim in, and the brother-in-law who's making his older sister so happy, that he can't handle. Ever since his parents passed and this stranger became "family," Mugi's felt like there's nowhere he belongs, like maybe he should just...drown. Feeling out of place in his own home, he turns for refuge to his one friend, local girl Matori, whose grandmother tells them about a mysterious legend surrounding mermaids in a secret cove who will grant one wish to whoever they meet. So when Mugi's brother-in-law gets swept off to sea trying to save a carless swimmer in rough waters, it's up to Mugi to try to make things right--sink or swim. Also includes two short stories, one following a young girl trying to navigate the complicated emotions that come with trauma and the difficulty of growing up and apart from friends, and another about a librarian who encounters an unusual father and son seeking shelter from the snow.