Relativity

 Relativity by Antonia Hayes

12 year old Ethan Forsythe is a gifted child with an obsession for physics and the unusual ability to see sound waves and other things most people can't. But how much of his giftedness is natural and how much is the result of a traumatic head injury sustained when he was still an infant? 

Ethan is determined to find out why he has never met his father, Mark, and when an illness in Mark's family brings him unexpectedly back into their lives, the secret Ethan's mother, Claire, has been protecting the boy from all these years is jeopardized. 
 

Clair remains cautious, desperate to shield the son she gave up a career and a marriage to keep safe. Ethan, who has a father for the first time in his life, wants to know Mark and to understand what drove their family apart. Mark, still gutted by what he feels are unjust losses and wasted years, wants his life back. Bonding over a shared passion for science, Mark and Ethan grow close and slowly Mark begins to face the truth of the damage he has done. As they all take tentative steps toward one another they must question whether love and forgiveness could ever make up for the mistakes of the past.

It's a poignant story of three people trying to overcome a single incident that drastically changed all their lives. Each character is vulnerable in their own way and you find yourself rooting for all of them; you want them to heal as individuals and to make it as a family. 

A compelling (an overused word but so apt, isn't it?) plot, authentic characters you can get invested in, good writing, and science. I loved it!