Breakfast with Neruda

Michael Flynn is just trying to get through his community service after he made the dumb decision to try to blow up his friend's car with fireworks--the same friend who stole Michael's girl. Being expelled and losing his best buddy and his girlfriend are the least of his problems: Michael has learned to hide everything, from his sick hoarder mother to the fact that he's stuck living in a 1982 Ford LTD station wagon he calls the Blue Whale. Then one day, during mandatory community service, he meets Shelly, a girl with a past, who's also special enough to unmask Michael's deepest secrets. Can he manage to be worthy of her love, a guy living in a car, unable to return to his chaotic and fit-to-be-condemned home? Shelly won't give up, and tries to peel back the layers of garbage and pain to reveal Michael's immense heart. "Michael's a great guy with luck so bad it's epic--from a house so decrepit that it's going to be condemned to repeating senior year after a stupid, dangerous prank. Then along comes Shelly, also in mandatory community service. Can two misfits face the future together?"--Page 4 of cover. Leaving his chaotic home to live in a 1982 station wagon, teenaged Michael is performing mandatory community service when he meets Shelly, girl with a past, who may be special enough to unmask Michael's deepest secrets and reveal his immense heart.