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Early Sobrieties

Early Sobrieties

Summary

'Suberb . . . vivid' TELEGRAPH

'The arrival of a writer of considerable gifts' TLS

'Michael Deagler is the real deal . . . a truly intelligent work from a clearly intelligent writer' PERCIVAL EVERETT

'Illuminating and moving' AIMEE BENDER

***

Dennis Monk is about to spend his first summer sober. At twenty-six he is ready to re-join sensible adult life, but just when Dennis needs stability, his uptight parents kick him out into a world of couch-surfing.

Everything around him has changed and everyone he knows seems to be doing better than he is. At every street corner, former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers threaten to burst the bubble of his recovery. And Dennis Monk is about to learn the difference between getting sober and staying sober in this new world.

Early Sobrieties is a devastatingly witty novel about coming of age a second time. Deagler’s debut marks the arrival of an astonishing new voice in American fiction.

Reviews

  • Michael Deagler is the real deal. This novel is surprising in all the best ways. The actions of the complex and complicated people in this world are not predictable, but always, frighteningly, believable. Deagler writes with great control and understatement. This is a truly intelligent work from a clearly intelligent writer
    Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No

About the author

Michael Deagler

Michael Deagler's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Harper's, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City.
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