Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle she's a disgrace; to design mavens she's a revolutionary architect and to 15-year-old Bee she is a best friend and simply Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. 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. To find her mother 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