The deep end of the ocean

The Deep End of the Ocean is a novel by the American writer Jacquelyn Mitchard, published in 1996.

Ben Cappadora vanishes from a crowded hotel lobby in a matter of minutes, and the novel follows what that does to the people who were there. Beth, a photographer, retreats into a depression that lasts for years, and her husband Pat holds the household together while their older son Vincent carries the guilt of having let go of his brother's hand. The police search becomes a national story and then stops being one, and the family has to continue in the shape the loss has left them in. When a boy called Sam turns up asking whether he can mow the lawn, Beth recognises him before anyone else does, and the second half of the book is about what happens when a child who has been raised by somebody else is returned to them.

The novel stays with the family for years after the return, and Vincent's version of events is the one that carries the most damage.