by Atticus Lish
First published 2022
Gloria Goltz abandons her academic dreams when she falls for Leonard, a charismatic blue-collar intellectual who gets her pregnant and vanishes. Fifteen years later, her son Corey has grown up fatherless, searching for adventure and male guidance. Then Gloria receives a devastating diagnosis: motor neuron disease. Leonard reappears just as the medical bills mount and Gloria's condition worsens. Corey throws himself into becoming his mother's caretaker, working beyond his limits to pay for her treatment. But as Leonard reasserts his magnetic hold over both mother and son, Corey faces an agonizing choice. He must see through his father's manipulative genius and protect Gloria from the man who abandoned them both. The weight of responsibility threatens to crush him as he fights a war on two fronts: against his mother's relentless disease and his father's toxic influence.
Genres: literary-fiction, medical, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, redemption
448 pages · Paperback · Serpent's Tail
Content warnings: medical-trauma, terminal-illness