by Atticus Lish
First published 2012
Atticus works as a Chinese-English translator in Brooklyn, where he has built a life with his wife Beth over thirteen years of marriage. The drawings he creates reveal a man caught between opposing forces that define his daily existence. His work captures both humor and sickness, moments that lift him up alongside others that drag him down. The laughable sits next to the painful in his world. Born in 1971, Atticus moves through a Brooklyn that shapes him as much as he observes it. His translator's eye for meaning carries over into how he sees his marriage, his neighborhood, and himself. The story follows his attempts to balance the transcendent possibilities of his relationships against the decay he witnesses around him. What emerges is a portrait of someone trying to find stability in a life that refuses to stay still, where small victories compete with daily defeats in equal measure.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, found-family
Setting: Brooklyn
Period: 21st-century
124 pages · Paperback · Tyrant Books