SIGNAL FIRES by Dani Shapiro

This novel opens with a terrible car accident.  Fifteen-year-old Theo is driving, because his older sister, Sarah, is intoxicated.  Another teenager in the car does not survive.  Sarah claims to be the driver, not only to protect Theo, but also because she so casually threw him the keys.  This tragedy becomes a secret that Sarah and Theo’s family will never discuss.  Years later a younger family moves in across the street, and, although the two families never socialize with one another, their lives become entangled.  This other family’s son, Waldo, has a genius-level IQ but is a disappointment to his father whose expectations Waldo will never meet.  Waldo’s passion is astronomy with a healthy dose of physics and maybe even a bit of metaphysics.  His interest in the death of stars leads him to a philosophy about the death of people as well, and his depth of perception is totally invisible to his father, who has anger management issues.  These two families are troubled in completely different ways.  Waldo’s is basically dysfunctional, while Sarah and Theo have guilt issues that go unaddressed.  The fact that their parents refuse to talk about the accident just adds fuel to the fire.  If you are thinking that this novel leans toward the melancholy, you would be right, but it is much more.  Sarah, Theo, and Waldo all have to figure out a way to navigate lives whose foundations are shaky.