by Ben Lerner
First published 2014
A successful young writer faces a cascade of life-altering moments: a potentially fatal heart condition, an unexpected literary breakthrough, and his best friend's request to father her child. Set in a New York increasingly destabilized by super storms and political tension, he navigates complex personal terrain—dating an artist, considering unconventional parenthood, and wrestling with the fragility of human connection. As medical uncertainty and creative possibility collide, he must reconstruct his understanding of survival, art, and personal legacy in a city teetering between destruction and hope.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unconventional-parenthood
Setting: New York
Period: 21st-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: medical-trauma