‘Whale fall’ is the term used when the carcass of a deceased whale settles on the ocean floor at a depth greater than a kilometre. It’s there that the body is consumed by all manner of deep-sea scavengers, sometimes over decades, creating its own ecosystem. It’s a noble fate and one that 17-year-old Jay Gardiner contemplates as his own when he finds himself literally in the belly of an ailing whale.

Jay’s dad, Mitt, an experienced scuba diver, doesn’t have the ability or desire to hold down a regular job and lives by the credo that the pursuit of money will kill you, a doctrine he has embraced from his favourite novel, Cannery Row. Mitt also subscribes to a tough-love style of parenting which is one of the many reasons the boy and his father become estranged. When Mitt deliberately drowns himself in the ocean after a terminal cancer diagnosis, Jay dives out to recover his father’s bones in an act of closure. But not long into his quest, Jay gets tangled in the tentacles of a squid who’s being pursued by a sperm whale. Both Jay and the squid are drawn into the whale’s mouth and ingested. This sequence of events forces Jay to confront notions that he’s had about his father to aid his chances of survival.

Daniel Kraus has researched the scenarios in this novel with scientists in marine biology and human anatomy, and it has been likened to Andy Weir’s The Martian for its scientific accuracy. But in addition to the novel’s logical meticulousness, Whalefall is a beautifully written, unexpectedly touching and poignant coming-of-age tale of love, loss and regret. It is also a cinematic, ticking-clock survival thriller and one of the most intensely immersive stories that I have read of late. I loved it.