The silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life

In the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life, we meet Imajin (his friends and family call him Maji), a sixteen-year-old African-American boy from the Bronx who, during one fateful summer, finds his world crumbling down around him. During his last class of the school year, he feels overwhelmed by the news of a young Internet celebrity taking his life in Brooklyn and another of a pregnant black woman held at gunpoint by cops. This is the same day that his favorite teacher and role model announces that he's leaving the school before Maji's senior year. Couple this with him internally dealing with the destruction of his family -- his mother suffering from depression and his father slowly pulling away from his home -- and Maji decides to run. Run from everything. Run from everyone. Building a small raft out of materials from his neighborhood, and with nothing but the Moby Dick book he stole from his teacher and a few printed maps, Maji sets sail down the Hudson River one night and out to the open sea hoping to find a miracle that would make his life special and worthwhile.