As Frannie navigates these odd occurrences, he encounters a mysterious stranger who seems to know a lot about him and the strange events taking place all around him. This figure leads him on a journey through time, revealing that Frannie is caught in a loop, and that the choices he makes have far-reaching implications not just for his own life, but for the entire town and beyond.
McCabe finds himself grappling with questions about free will, the nature of reality, and the possibility of alternate universes. His journey becomes one of self-discovery, as he uncovers hidden truths about his past, his family, and his future.
In the end, The Wooden Sea leaves readers pondering the mysteries of existence, the choices we make, and the unseen forces that shape our lives.
Praise for The Wooden Sea:
"[T]hings get weird, and not just Carl Hiaasen weird; [the protagonist] finds himself teamed up with his seventeen-year-old self in a time-travel fantasy-thriller, set almost entirely in his home town but involving aliens, cold fusion, and a sinister twenty-first-century Dutch entrepreneur. The result is a quirky piece of intelligent pop that is also surprisingly moving." — The New Yorker
" The Wooden Sea is a treat, and I'm heading out to look for more Jonathan Carroll titles. Frannie, the worldly war-stung small town cop, hits classic status for me. His luminously hard-boiled American voice is smart, funny, and devastatingly decent. Kind of guy you're glad to follow anywhere--even into the strange zones of The Wooden Sea." — Katherine Dunn
Jonathan Carroll has published more than twenty novels including The Land of Laughs, The Wooden Sea, and Outside the Dog Museum, two story collections, and a collection of short nonfiction pieces, The Crow's Dinner. His work has been translated into over thirty languages. He's won a Pushcart Prize, World Fantasy award, British Fantasy award, French Fantasy award twice, and the Bram Stoker award. His novella Black Cocktail was dramatized in a one man show at the Edinburgh Festival. For many years he was a teacher at the American International School in Vienna while secretly writing his novels under the covers at night, lit only by hope and a dull flashlight. Carroll's latest novel is Mr. Breakfast (2023).