“I learned early on that if you tell people what you see at low tide they’ll think you’re exaggerating or lying when you’re actually just explaining strange and wonderful things…” (The Highest Tide, Lynch)

Literature is bedecked with a litany of novels’ opening lines.  From “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” (A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens) to “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” (1984, Orwell).  The above quote from The Highest Tide certainly ranks with these greats, and it succinctly describes why we need more media about our Pacific Northwest waters.

But The Highest Tide isn’t a dry, scientific tome.  It’s a story of a boy learning about the world through the prism of his passion for the tidelands and through his relationships with a diverse set of people close to him.  If you’d like to see a more in-depth review, see the review by W. R. Greer.  In short, it’s one of the greatest glimpses of local marine world intertwingled with a human story that makes the science as personable as any of the other characters in the novel.