First published 2021
A man makes regular visits to see his aging father at a nursing home. During these visits, his father works on writing a novel. The father believes he is crafting the kind of story his son would create. But the reality grows more complex. Perhaps the son imagines what his father might write if the father were trying to capture his son's literary voice. The layers of authorship and imagination multiply. Father and son navigate the difficult terrain of aging and the indignities that come with it. The nursing home becomes a space where creativity and decline intersect. Each visit reveals more about their relationship and the stories they tell themselves about each other. The novel within the novel blurs the boundaries between who is creating what. This exploration of family bonds unfolds against the backdrop of institutional care and the vulnerabilities of old age. The book examines how we construct narratives about the people closest to us and how those narratives shape our understanding of love and loss.
Genres: literary-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: father-son-relationship, unreliable-narrator
224 pages · Paperback · Influx Press