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.
About the Author.
Michael Deagler’s debut novel EARLY SOBRIETIES will be published in 2024 by Astra House in the US and Hutchinson Heinemann in the UK. Deagler’s fiction has appeared inHarper’s, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a National Magazine Award, as well as fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in creative writing and literature at the University of Southern California.
