First published 2022
Joshua Levin lives a predictable life in Chicago. He teaches English to immigrants, maintains a steady relationship with his girlfriend who lives nearby, and dreams of turning his screenplay Zombie Wars into something worthwhile. His family creates minor drama from their suburban homes, but nothing he cannot handle. His landlord, an unstable army veteran, begins showing signs of serious mental breakdown. Joshua makes poor choices with a seductive Bosnian woman from his ESL class. These decisions trigger a cascade of consequences that transform his ordinary existence into something dangerous. What begins as manageable complications escalates rapidly. The absurd situations become genuine threats to his survival. Joshua must navigate increasingly perilous circumstances as his comfortable world collapses around him.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, thriller, 21st-century
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chicago
Period: 21st-century
320 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: mental-illness