by Jason Mott
First published 2025
One writer travels the globe after winning a major literary prize, clutching his award trophy and drinking from it as he moves through foreign landscapes dotted with tiny French cars. The other prepares to speak at a school marked by shooting violence. Their separate journeys weave together through surreal encounters with sea monsters, peacocks, and floating handguns that seem suspended in air. Time bends around them as they search for safety and belonging in a world where violence lurks in shadows. Both men carry deep wounds and impossible longings, yet they find moments of wild humor and profound connection. Their stories collide in ways that reveal how people survive trauma through love, memory, and stubborn hope. What emerges is a portrait of two souls fighting to make meaning from loss while refusing to surrender their dreams.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, magical-realism, psychological-thriller
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, surreal, unreliable-narrator
288 pages · Hardcover · Trapeze
Content warnings: violence