Species of Summer

Jesse Andrews is from Nebraska.
The only language he knows is English.
He's never been outside of the US, except for that one time his family went to Montreal.
Despite of all of this, Jesse's mom decides that it's a good idea to send him to Israel for the summer. She wants him to "get in touch" with his heritage. He doesn't really have any other options, so he travels to the controversy capital of the world. There, he stays with the Gezer family and quickly befriends their three teens and twenty-something. Through these Israeli teens, Jesse is exposed to an entirely new culture and language and country. But regardless of the obvious differences, Jesse learns that no matter where you go, teens are teens. They throw parties and they drink and they screw up and they live. The only things separating these two types of teens is an ocean and a language. But when you can swim and speak, is there really that much of a difference?