First published 2014
Domingo Martinez receives a terrifying phone call in the middle of the night. His fiancé Stephanie has crashed her car after suffering a seizure, plummeting off a Seattle overpass. As she lies in a coma, Martinez begins to fall apart emotionally. The crisis forces him to confront his troubled romantic relationship with Stephanie and his years of isolation from his Texas family. The accident mirrors another devastating moment from his past when his youngest brother's life hung in the balance. Martinez struggles with addiction and his inner demons while feeling completely alone in Seattle. He turns to writing as his only refuge from the pain. These twin traumas ultimately push him toward the family he has spent years trying to avoid. When Martinez reaches his breaking point, he discovers that the bonds he tried to sever might be the very thing that saves him. A new love enters his life and encourages him to write his way through the darkness.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Seattle
Period: contemporary
320 pages · Hardcover · Lyons Press
Content warnings: addiction, depression, mental-illness