Fish Food (a novel about life, death, and commas)

Michael Uxem is a grammar-obsessed, hearing-impaired evolutionary biologist who shares his home on Martha's Vineyard with three cats, an irascible parrot, and a tankful of red-bellied piranhas (his wife left him years ago for an Andersen Windows salesman). The goal of his scientific work is to discover a shark repellent that can be applied by beach-going humans as part of their sun cream (hence the piranhas, small-scale experimental substitutes for sharks). Just as his research is reaching ...