First published 2016
Stub lives wild on a college campus, surviving by taking what he needs. He steals sweaters from dorm rooms and pies from kitchen windowsills. The campus around him pulses with privilege: crisp linens, cold drinks beading with condensation, preserves made from scratch. Stub moves through this world unseen until he encounters Billy, who offers him shelter. Then Asthma arrives and captivates him completely. What Stub gains, he loses again. The boy who took everything must learn what it means to be taken from. Ducornet crafts a story thick with sensory detail, where stolen objects become tokens of belonging and love reveals itself as another form of theft. This novel explores how we deceive ourselves about connection, how affection can wound, and how the heart can grow crooked under pressure.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, campus
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: College Campus
Period: Contemporary
143 pages · Paperback · Coffee House Press