New Releases by Lydia Millet

A Harper''s Bazaar "Best Book Coming Out This Spring" Pick • One of Literary Hub''s Most Anticipated Books of 2025 • One of The Millions''s Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2025 A fast-moving, heartbreaking collection of short fiction from "the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves" (Chicago Tribune). The word atavism, coined by a botanist and popularized by a criminologist, refers to the resurfacing of a primitive evolutionary trait or urge in a modern being. This inventive collection from Lydia Millet offers overlapping tales of urges ranging from rage to jealousy to yearning—a fluent triumph of storytelling, rich in ideas and emotions both petty and grand. The titular atavists include an underachieving, bewildered young bartender; a middle-aged mother convinced her gentle son-in-law is fixated on geriatric porn; a bodybuilder with an incel’s fantasy life; an arrogant academic accused of plagiarism; and an empty-nester dad determined to host refugees in a tiny house in his backyard. As they pick away at the splitting seams in American culture, Millet’s characters shimmer with the sense of powerlessness we share in an era of mass overwhelm. A beautician in a waxing salon faces a sudden resurgence of grief in the midst of a bikini Brazilian; a couple sets up a camera to find out who’s been slipping homophobic letters into their mailbox; a jilted urban planner stalks a man she met on a dating app. In its rich warp and weft of humiliations and human error, Atavists returns to the trenchant, playful social commentary that made A Children’s Bible a runaway hit. In these stories sharp observations of middle-class mores and sanctimony give way to moments of raw exposure and longing: Atavists performs an uncanny fictional magic, full of revelation but also hilarious, unpretentious, and warm.

A young Los Angeles real estate developer consumed by power and political ambitions finds his orderly, upwardly mobile life thrown into chaos by the sudden appearance of his nutty mother, who''s been deserted by T.''s now out–of–the–closet father After his mother''s suicide attempt and two other deaths, T. finds himself increasingly estranged from his latest project: a retirement community in the middle of the California desert. As he juggles family, business, and social responsibilities, T. begins to nurture a curious obsession with vanishing species. Soon he''s living a double life, building sprawling subdivisions by day and breaking into zoos at night to be near the animals. A series of calamities forces T. to a tropical island, where he takes a Conrad–esque journey up a river into the remote jungle. Millet''s devastating wit, psychological acuity, and remarkable empathy for flawed humankind contend with her vision of a world slowly murdering itself.

Woestijnbergen is met lof overladen en gekozen tot een van de beste boeken van het jaar volgens o.a. The New York Times. Een roman over het zoeken naar en het vinden van geluk, de waarde van vriendschap en houden van jezelf Millets nieuwe roman is het verhaal van Gil, een veertiger die van huis uit zeer rijk is en gebukt gaat onder het gevoel dat hij nooit ergens écht zijn best voor heeft hoeven doen. Zijn beslissing om van New York naar Arizona te verhuizen en daar helemaal naartoe te wandelen – een tocht van ruim vierduizend kilometer – verrast iedereen die hem kent. Nadat hij is aangekomen, trekken er nieuwe buren in het huis met glazen wanden naast het zijne en raakt zijn leven gaandeweg verweven met dat van hen. Naarmate hun vriendschap zich ontwikkelt, durft Gil zich ook steeds meer open te stellen voor nieuwe dingen. In dit warme, met droge humor geschreven en filosofische verhaal over Gils onverwachte toewijding aan dit gezin, onderzoekt Millet het geheimzinnige gebied waar het zelf eindigt en de gemeenschap begint – en wat één mens kan doen in een wereld die wordt geteisterd door noodsituaties. Woestijnbergen is zowel scherp als teder, een emotioneel ontroerende, intellectueel resonerende roman die de vraag stelt: waar leeft de hoop in de schaduw van existentiële dreiging? In de pers ‘Een mooi ingetogen geschreven verhaal over een man die verzoent, die toont dat je hoopvol mag zijn in een wereld die je bedreigt.’**** De Limburger ‘Deze tedere en invoelende roman laat je met dezelfde wonderlijke lichtheid achter als Forrest Gump.’ Zin Magazine ‘Millet keert terug met een briljant overlevingsverhaal. Deze geweldige en dynamische auteur is op de top van haar kunnen.’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) ‘Woestijnbergen luidt een nieuwe fase in de carrière van Millet in. De ruimtelijkheid van de stijl maakt het gevoel van verlies rijker en de gestelde vragen – wat is moreel handelen, hoe kunnen we elkaar het beste helpen – tegelijk eenvoudiger en diepgaander.’ New York Times Magazine ‘Millet is uitzonderlijk bekwaam in wat ze doet.’ The Guardian

A Time Must-Read Book of 2024 • A Booklist Editors'' Choice • A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2024 "A rigorous, evocative, brilliant bow to life." —Terry Tempest Williams, author of Erosion: Essays of Undoing This lucent anti-memoir from celebrated novelist Lydia Millet explores the pain and joy of being a parent, child, and human at a moment when the richness of the planet’s life is deeply threatened. Across more than a dozen acclaimed works of fiction, readers have become intimate with Lydia Millet’s distinctive voice and sly wit. We Loved It All, her first nonfiction book, combines the precision of fact with the power of narrative to evoke our enmeshment with the more-than-human world. Emerging from Millet’s quarter century of wildlife and climate advocacy, We Loved it All marries scenes from her life with moments of nearness to “the others”— the animals and plants with whom we share the earth. Accounts of fears and failures, jobs and friendships, childhood and motherhood are interspersed with exquisite accounts of nonhumans and arresting meditations on the power of story to shape the future. Seeking to understand why we immerse ourselves in the domestic and immediate, turning away from more sweeping views, she examines how grand cultural myths can deny our longing for the company of nature and deprive us of its charisma and inspiration. In a thrilling distillation of experience and emotion, she evinces the familiar sense of feeling both well-meaning and powerless—a creature subject to forces that are baffling in their immensity. The fear and grief of extinction and climate change, Millet suggests, are forms of love that might be turned to resistance. We Loved It All shimmers with curiosity and laconic humor yet addresses with reverence the most urgent crises of our day. An incantatory, bewitching devotional to the vast and precious bestiary of the earth, it asks that we extend to other living beings the protection they deserve—the simple grace of continued existence.

Shortlist National Book Award - ein hintergründiger Roman zur Klimakrise und dem Konflikt zwischen Boomer-Eltern und der nachfolgenden Generation. Die fünfzehnjährige Evie verbringt den Sommer mit ihrer Mittelschicht-Familie am Strand irgendwo an der Ostküste der USA. Ihre Eltern haben gemeinsam mit Freunden aus Collegezeiten ein geräumiges Sommerhaus gemietet. Während die Erwachsenen die Tage mit Alkohol, Drogen und Sex verbringen, sind ihre Kinder sich selbst überlassen und verwildern zusehends. Evie kümmert sich um ihren kleinen Bruder Jack. Er ist ein verträumter, intelligenter Junge, der sich Sorgen um die Umwelt macht und dem Tiere sehr am Herzen liegen. Von einer der Mütter hat Jack eine Kinderbibel bekommen, deren Geschichten er verschlingt und für bare Münze nimmt. Als ein verheerender Wirbelsturm aufzieht und sintflutartiger Regen alles zu zerstören droht, verlassen die Kinder das Haus, um inmitten des Chaos einen sicheren Ort zu finden. Sie schlagen ihr Lager auf einer Farm auf, wo es noch ausreichend Vorräte gibt, bis auch hier das Unheil zuschlägt. Doch am Ende werden sie es sein, die es schaffen, sich an die neue Umwelt anzupassen.

One of NPR''s Books We Love for 2022 - A New Yorker Best Books of 2022 So Far - A Publishers Weekly Best Novel of 2022 - A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2022 - One of Time''s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 - An Oprah Daily and Literary Hub Favorite Book of 2022 - A BookBrowse Top 20 Best Books of 2022 A stunning new novel from the author of A Children''s Bible, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times'' 10 Best Books of 2020.

Comment faire le bien et tisser des liens dans une société fracturée ? À la suite d''une déception amoureuse, Gil quitte New York pour rejoindre l''Arizona, à pied. Gil, le solitaire, passe ses journées dans la contemplation de la nature jusqu''à l''arrivée d''une famille dans la maison d''en face. Tel un aquarium, la construction de verre aux abords du désert donne tout à voir. Petit à petit, le quotidien de Gil s''entremêle à celui de ces inconnus dont il sait déjà tout. Dans ce roman à l''humour subtil, Lydia Millet examine le rôle de l''individu dans la société et les communautés que l''on crée dans un monde en crise.

Román oceňované americké autorky o klimatické katastrofě a střetu generací. Skupina dětí a teenagerů tráví nedobrovolně prázdniny se svými rodinami v domě u jezera. Zatímco rodiče ubíjejí dny v alkoholovém a sexuálním opojení, děti svírá narůstající frustrace. Když oblast zasáhne ničivá bouře a svět se ocitne na prahu klimatického kolapsu, rozhodnou se dospělým utéct. Apokalyptické výjevy za zdmi letního sídla ukazují generační spor v ponurém světle: na jedné straně stojí dospělí, kteří pádu starého světa nečinně přihlíželi, na druhé ti, kteří v nové skutečnosti budou muset žít. Nakladatelská anotace.

Een prachtig verhaal over een groep kinderen die proberen te overleven in een wereld die verwoest dreigt te worden – alarmerend actueel, meesterlijk verteld Lydia Millets sublieme nieuwe roman volgt een groep van twaalf kinderen die met hun families op vakantie zijn in een groot landhuis aan een meer. De jongeren zetten zich af tegen hun ouders – die hun dagen slijten in een walm van drank, drugs en seks – en voelen zich tegelijkertijd verwaarloosd en onderdrukt. Wanneer een verwoestende storm het zonnige landgoed dreigt te verwoesten, besluiten de leiders van de groep – onder wie Eve – weg te lopen en nemen ze de jongere kinderen mee op een gevaarlijke tocht door de apocalyptische chaos in de buitenwereld. De rampzalige gebeurtenissen om hen heen beginnen steeds meer te lijken op de verhalen in de versleten kinderbijbel die het broertje van Eve overal met zich meedraagt en zij zet alles op alles om hem in leven te houden. De laatste zomer is een profetisch, hartverscheurend verhaal over de afstand tussen twee generaties en een beklijvend visioen van wat ons te wachten staat. In de pers ‘Millet is een van de meest fascinerende romanschrijvers van vandaag.’ The Wall Street Journal Magazine ‘Pijnlijk scherp en vol donkere humor.’ Los Angeles Times ‘Deze fantastische roman begint als een generatiekomedie en wordt steeds duisterder naarmate klimaatrampen zich voor beginnen te doen en de maatschappij uit elkaar begint te brokkelen. Maar Millet blijft lichtvoetig; in deze tijd van grote ontreddering, zo zegt ze, krijgen onze fundamentele mythen een nieuwe, hoopvolle betekenis.’ The New York Times

Finalista del National Book Award 2020 Una de las cinco mejores novelas de 2020 para The New York Times Una de las mejores novelas del año según Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Tribune, Esquire y BBC Una Biblia para niños sigue a un grupo de doce niños de madurez escalofriante a los que, contra su voluntad, arrastran a una mansión junto a un lago para pasar las vacaciones con sus respectivas familias. En un arrebato de rechazo hacia sus padres, los niños deciden escaparse justo cuando estalla una tormenta descomunal en el lugar. Así, el grupo, en medio de su incursión, se ve envuelto en el caos del mundo exterior. Lydia Millet concibe, en esta aclamada novela escrita en un tono realista pero con un claro mensaje alegórico, una historia profética y descorazonadora que explora el conflicto intergeneracional y nos muestra una visión inquietante sobre lo que nos espera al otro lado del Apocalipsis.

Un roman puissant sur l''aliénation adolescente et la complaisance des adultes dans un monde en mutation. Finaliste du National Book Award. L''un des dix meilleurs livres de l''année selon le New York Times. Un roman prophétique sur le monde de demain. Une grande maison de vacances au bord d''un lac. Cet été-là, cette maison est le domaine de douze adolescents à la maturité étonnante et de leurs parents qui passent leurs journées dans une torpeur où se mêlent alcool, drogue et sexe. Lorsqu''une tempête s''abat sur la région et que le pays plonge dans le chaos, les enfants – dont Eve, la narratrice – décident de prendre les choses en main. Ils quittent la maison, emmenant les plus jeunes et laissant derrière eux ces parents apathiques qu''ils méprisent et dont l''inaction les exaspère autant qu''elle les effraie.

"The following stories by Lydia Millet, Sjon, Paul Kingsnorth, and Ben Okri explore the theme of apocalypse from past, present, and future perspectives. Through the grief of extinction, the gift of second sight, the fatal temptation of technology, and the final notes of human history, these four writers usher us into the mystery of what lies beyond an ending."--book cover flap.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s sublime new novel—her first since the National Book Award long-listed Sweet Lamb of Heaven—follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their parents, who pass their days in a stupor of liquor, drugs, and sex, the children feel neglected and suffocated at the same time. When a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, the group’s ringleaders—including Eve, who narrates the story—decide to run away, leading the younger ones on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside. As the scenes of devastation begin to mimic events in the dog-eared picture Bible carried around by her beloved little brother, Eve devotes herself to keeping him safe from harm. A Children’s Bible is a prophetic, heartbreaking story of generational divide—and a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Pick A Library Journal Best Book of 2018 “Full of joys on every scale.” —NPR This wonderfully original collection proves once again that Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet is “the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves” (Chicago Tribune). In Fight No More, Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting a community through the houses they inhabit. With crackling satire and surprising tenderness, Millet introduces an indelible cast of untidy teens, beastly men, and strong-minded women whose stories begin to outline the fate of one particular family being torn apart by forces they recognize but cannot control. Millet’s intellect and beautiful prose deliver profound insight into human behavior, from the ordinary to the bizarre, and draws startling contrasts between house and home.

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction: Blending domestic thriller and psychological horror, this compelling page-turner follows a mother fleeing her estranged husband. Lydia Millet’s previous work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Likewise greeted with rapturous praise, Sweet Lamb of Heaven is a first-person account of a young mother, Anna, fleeing her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who’s just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists—and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife’s world in ways she never could have imagined. A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, Sweet Lamb of Heaven builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters—and for all of us.

The Sykes family is faced with revelations from without and within. Whatever happens: nothing will ever be the same again.

"Hilariously funny…Lydia Millet’s novels raise the bar for boldness." —Rene Steinke, New York Times Book Review In this “comic masterpiece” (Salon), honeymooners Deb and Chip—our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband—befriend a marine biologist who discovers mermaids in a coral reef. As a resort chain swoops in to exploit the shy creatures, the newlyweds unite with other adventurous vacationers to stop the company from turning the reef into a theme park. Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet’s most fun book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories.

A teenage girl and her brother fight for their family’s future in a world devastated by climate change: “Thrillingly scary . . . There is much here to enjoy” (The Washington Post). In a dystopian future brought about by global warming, seventeen-year-old Nat and her hacker brother, Sam, have come by ship to the Big Island of Hawaii for their parents’ Final Week. The few Americans who still live well also live long—so long that older adults bow out not by natural means but by buying death contracts from the corporates who now run the disintegrating society, keeping the people happy through a constant diet of “pharma.” Nat’s family is spending their pharma-guided last week at a luxury resort complex called the Twilight Island Acropolis. Deeply conflicted about her parents’ decision, Nat spends her time keeping a record of everything her family does in the company-supplied diary that came in the hotel’s care package. While Nat attempts to come to terms with her impending parentless future, Sam begins to discover cracks in the corporates’ agenda—and eventually rebels against the company his parents have hired to handle their last days. Now Nat will have to choose a side, in this moving and suspenseful novel by a National Book Award–nominated author. Winner of the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People “A deep read, but fast; it lingers in your mind long after it’s been read.” —New York Journal of Books “A brilliant dystopian novel . . . Beautifully written, dark but ultimately hopeful.” —The Buffalo News “The details are terrific . . . and as the tension mounts it becomes a real page turner.” —The Independent “Vivid, moving . . . Will attract mature teen fans of Divergent, Hunger Games, and similar apocalyptic survival stories.” —Midwest Book Review

The world is becoming very strange for thirteen-year-old Cara who discovers that some wonderful creatures don''t only exist in dreams.

This novel introduces Susan Lindley, a woman adrift after her husband''s death. Suddenly gifted her great uncle''s Pasadena mansion, Susan decides to restore his extensive collection of preserved animals, tending to the fur and feathers, the beaks, the bones and shimmering tails. Meanwhile, a menagerie of uniquely damaged humans - including a cheating husband and a chorus of eccentric elderly women - joins her in residence.

L''événement Lot49 de la rentrée ! 16 juillet 1945 : la première bombe atomique est testée à Los Alamos, au Nouveau-Mexique. Au moment précis de l''explosion, Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, et Enrico Fermi, trois des principaux scientifiques responsables du projet, sont mystérieusement " transportés " en 2006, à Santa Fe. Recueillis par Ann, une bibliothécaire, et son mari Ben, les trois savants déboussolés vont devoir s''adapter tant bien que mal à leur nouvelle vie, à ce monde que leurs recherches ont radicalement changé. Après avoir appris l''horreur engendrée par leur création (Hiroshima...) et les funestes conséquences de celle-ci, ils ne tarderont pas à entreprendre, des États-Unis au Japon, une croisade pacifiste visant au désarmement total. Entre l''armée et les scientifiques, qui voient leur " apparition " d''un mauvais œil, les groupes religieux, qui assimilent leur présence à une prophétie biblique, et une société médiatique qu''il faut apprendre à manipuler, nos trois larrons vont avoir fort à faire. À partir de cette hypothèse irréelle, Lydia Millet nous livre avec ce roman désopilant et d''une imagination réjouissante une remarquable analyse des liens qu''entretiennent science, politique et religion dans l''Amérique d''aujourd''hui, et l''effort permanent de ces trois domaines pour diriger nos vies. En reine des dialogues et des situations absurdes, l''auteur, à l''instar d''un Richard Powers, sait combiner vertige de la science et subtilité de l''intrigue comme peu d''autres écrivains. On pense à Murakami et à Don DeLillo, autant qu''à Twain et Vonnegut.

A funny and haunting new novel from "one of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation" (Los Angeles Times). Hal is a mild-mannered IRS bureaucrat who suspects that his wife is cheating with her younger, more virile coworker. At a drunken dinner party, Hal volunteers to fly to Belize in search of Susan''s employer, T.—the protagonist of Lydia Millet''s much-lauded novel How the Dead Dream—who has vanished in a tropical jungle, initiating a darkly humorous descent into strange and unpredictable terrain. Salon raved that Millet''s "writing is always flawlessly beautiful, reaching for an experience that precedes language itself." In Ghost Lights, she combines her characteristic wit and a sharp eye for the weirdness that governs human (and nonhuman) interactions. With the scathing satire and tender honesty of Sam Lipsyte and a dark, quirky, absurdist style reminiscent of Joy Williams, Millet has created a comic, startling, and surprisingly philosophical story about idealism and disillusionment, home and not home, and the singular, heartbreaking devotion of parenthood.

Cara''s mother has disappeared. Her father isn''t talking about it. Her big brother Max is hiding behind his iPod, and her genius little brother Jackson is busy studying the creatures he collects from the beach. But when a watery specter begins to haunt the family''s Cape Cod home, Cara and her brothers realize that their scientist mother may not be who they thought she was—and that the world has much stranger, much older inhabitants than they had imagined. With help from Cara''s best friend Hayley, the three embark on a quest that will lead them from the Cape''s hidden, ancient places to a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. They''re soon on the front lines of an ancient battle between good and evil, with the terrifying "pouring man" close on their heels. Packed with memorable characters and thrilling imagery, Lydia Millet weaves a page-turning adventure even as she brings the seaside world of Cape Cod to magical life. The first in a series of books about the Sykes children, The Fires Beneath the Sea is a rip-cracking middle-grade novel that will make perfect beach reading—for readers of any age! Lydia Millet is the author of six previous novels, including My Happy Life, which won the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction, and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Her short story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Animals and celebrities share unusual relationships in these hilarious satirical stories by an award-winning contemporary writer. Lions, Komodo dragons, dogs, monkeys, and pheasants—all have shared spotlights and tabloid headlines with celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison, and David Hasselhoff. Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of our fascination with famous people and pop culture in a wildly inventive collection of stories that “evoke the spectrum of human feeling and also its limits” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review). While in so much fiction animals exist as symbols of good and evil or as author stand-ins, they represent nothing but themselves in Millet''s ruthlessly lucid prose. Implacable in their actions, the animals in Millet’s spiraling fictional riffs and flounces show up their humans as bloated with foolishness yet curiously vulnerable, as in a tour-de-force, Kabbalah-infused interior monologue by Madonna after she shoots a pheasant on her Scottish estate. Millet treads newly imaginative territory with these charismatic tales. “These incredibly crafted stories, with their rare intelligence, humor, and empathy, describe the furious collision of nature and science, man and animal, everyday citizen and celebrity, fact and fiction. Lydia Millet’s writing sparkles with urgent brilliance.” —Joe Meno

At the opening of My Happy Life, the unnamed narrator has been abandoned in a locked room of a deserted mental hospital. She hasn''t seen the nice man who brings her food in days; so she''s eaten the soap, the toothpaste, and even tried to eat the plaster on her walls — a dietary adventure that ended none too well. This woman''s story, covering decades and spanning continents, is tragic, yet she is curiously at peace, even happy. Despite a lifetime of neglect, physical abuse, and loss, she''s incapable of perceiving slight or injury. She has infinite faith in the goodwill of others, loves even her enemies, and finds grace and communion in places most people wouldn''t dare to brave. Lauded by both critics and readers, My Happy Life consistently surprises and excites with its original vision of a unique woman whose rich interior life protects her from the horrors of external reality.

Transported to the 21st century, Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi grapple with the legacy of the atom bomb in this “shattering and beautiful” time travel novel (Entertainment Weekly). Oh Pure and Radiant Heart plucks the three scientists who were key to the invention of the atom bomb—Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi—as they watch history’s first mushroom cloud rise over the desert on July 16th, 1945 . . . and places them down in modern-day Santa Fe. One by one, the scientists are spotted by a shy librarian who becomes convinced of their authenticity. Entranced, bewildered, overwhelmed by their significance as historical markers on the one hand, and their peculiar personalities on the other, she, to the dismay of her husband, devotes herself to them. Soon the scientists acquire a sugar daddy—a young pothead millionaire from Tokyo who bankrolls them. Heroes to some, lunatics or con artists to others, the scientists finally become messianic religious figureheads to fanatics, who believe Oppenheimer to be the Second Coming. As the ever-growing convoy traverses the country in a fleet of RV’s on a pilgrimage to the UN, the scientists wrestle with the legacy of their invention and their growing celebrity, while Ann and her husband struggle with the strain on their marriage, a personal journey married to a history of thermonuclear weapons. “Possesses the nervy irreverence of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller . . . Can only be described as, well, genius.” —Vanity Fair

A “supremely wacky [and] astute” novel by a PEN Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist (The Washington Post). In Los Angeles, Dean Decetes, a pornographer with messianic delusions, spins out of control, spending his time drinking himself into a stupor, getting beaten up by strangers he’s recklessly insulted, stealing credit cards to pay for sex, being arrested, begging favors, and mounting a PR campaign to make himself famous with the help of a loyal foot soldier—a porn-loving midget he met in jail. Meanwhile his pious, romantic spinster sister, who reluctantly keeps house for him, busies herself writing quasi-religious love notes to the boss she worships, and two of her coworkers at the statistics company—an obsessive-compulsive Christian Scientist in a twisted marriage and a promiscuous, depressed blond bombshell—become enmeshed in her life as she dreams of ridding herself of her freeloading brother and being carried away on a white horse by her employer. Then a teenage math genius runs away from home after her mother humiliates her in school, and hooks up at a bar with Decetes’s suicidal editor. Told from five points of view, over three wild days in which these lives intersect, this is a rollickingly funny yet heart-wrenching novel from one of today’s most acclaimed literary voices. “Taken at surface level, its presentation of over-the-top characters placed in bizarre situations is supremely wacky, but underneath is an astute examination of how contemporary society fosters alienation and loneliness so acute that it takes outsized actions to allow any possibility of driving the demons away.” —The Washington Post