Early Sobrieties: A Novel($15.26Value)

Description

WINNER of the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction "'Just give me one more day,' Monk says, and Early Sobrieties is such a wise and piercing book that we believe him." —Charlie Lee, The New York Times Book Review "Michael Deagler is the real deal." —Percival Everett, Pulitzer Prize recipient and author of James Don't worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He's sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances—if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood. Monk's haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing better than him—and most of them aren't even doing that well. His run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers challenge his version of events past and present, revealing that recovery is not the happy ending he'd expected, only a fraught next chapter. Like a sober, millennial Jesus' Son , Michael Deagler's debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America's middle class. Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace. “A moving, comic meditation on the impossibility of imposing narrative structure on our lives — which, despite our best efforts, tend to be baggy things, marred by loose ends, tedious repetitions and harrowing codas. [...] Early Sobrieties is such a wise and piercing book.” —Charlie Lee, The New York Times Book Review “Michael Deagler’s Early Sobrieties is an exquisitely honest, humorous, and poignant depiction of life on the far side of addiction. Its hero, Dennis Monk, seven months sober, finds temporary shelter on the guest beds and couches of Philadelphia while seeking a foothold in the young adulthood that’s been passing him by. This uniquely sustained portrait of recovery, all of its tedium shot through with moments of transcendence, lays bare the beautiful terror of each blank day, and the raw miracle of being alive.” —PEN/Hemingway Award judges' citation ★ “A young man surfaces from the depths of alcoholism in Deagler’s pitch-perfect debut novel . . . This is a standout.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred review) ★ “Dennis is nimble-tongued and keenly observant, and the book offers all sorts of humorous delights. Yet the reader quickly sees, too, that irony is Dennis’ protective coloration, that his wit is anxious and self-preserving. [ . . . ] Wry, sharp, charming, resistant to neat closures and easy turns—a debut of enormous promise.” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) “Really dug this novel. Funny, wry, honest, unapologetic, and soulful.” —Michael Imperioli “Told in episodic chapters and through Monk’s witty, perceptive point of view, Deagler’s debut novel skillfully examines the pitfalls and triumphs of sobriety, the challenges of having no clear direction in early adulthood, and the often winding paths we take toward the future.” —Allison Escoto, Booklist “Sharp and self-aware, with deep insight packed into no-fuss prose: a quarter-life-crisis tale for the ages.” — Bustle , "Most Anticipated Book" of Spring 2024 “Deagler’s debut shines as a raw and captivating introspective journey. He blends humor, insight, and sparkling prose to explore the complexities of sobriety and self-discovery.” — Debutiful “[Monk] has a recovering addict’s sense of the near-religious profundity of the day-to-day, the wry humor of a sober man among drunks, and a newly clear-eyed view of familiar people and places (or nearly familiar: the blackouts of his drinking days, their unknowability, haunt Monk’s newfound sober ones).” —Meghan Racklin, The Brooklyn Rail “Grimly funny.” — Philadelphia Magazine “South Philly is a distinct character here, its kudzu of grit, gentrification, and endless mazes of rowhouses bewildering to a soul newly emerged from the chemical haze of addiction.” — Broad Street Review " Early Sobrieties highlights poignantly that in the battle against addiction, each day is an ongoing fight to stay away from your drug of choice and to continue the process of rebuilding your life. [...] Deagler's debut reflects a vivid sense of South Philly as a backdrop to this intimate story and I look forward to what comes next for (and from) him." —Pei Chen, BookBrowse "Michael Deagler’s debut novel Early Sobrieties arrives with a fully for