Maria Semple presents “Where Did You Go, Bernadette?” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23 at Eagle Harbor Book Company.

It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle – and people in general – has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. Then Bernadette disappears. To find her mother, 15-year-old Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence – creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

Eagle Harbor Book Company is at 157 Winslow Way East.

For more information, call 206-842-5332.