First published 2006
A son guides his mentally ill father through the Pacific Northwest wilderness, searching for connection amid family breakdown. In Manhattan, a screenwriter fights to preserve his sanity within hospital walls while obsessing over a ballerina who ignites herself in flames. Northern Michigan hunters confront marital betrayal during a Thanksgiving expedition that strips away their pretenses. Carpenters construct movie sets for adult films, drifting toward racial violence they cannot grasp or prevent. These characters wander through remote cabins, psychiatric facilities, Indian reservations, Iowa backroads, and Seattle streets. They have lost their moorings and exhausted their capacity to create meaning. D'Ambrosio places them in situations that test their humanity at every turn. A father's madness becomes a son's inheritance. Sexual obsession collides with mental collapse. Infidelity destroys what seemed permanent. Racial tension simmers beneath workplace routine. Yet love persists even when everything else fails. These people struggle to remain connected to something larger than their pain. Their troubles sharpen rather than dull their perception. They see truth and beauty more clearly because of what they have endured.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Pacific Northwest, Manhattan, Northern Michigan, Iowa, Seattle
Period: Contemporary
256 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: mental-illness, suicide, violence