Real Life

Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Paste, Bookriot, and Library Journal. A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.A novel of rare emotional power that excavates the social intricacies of a late-summer weekend—and a lifetime of buried pain. Almost everything about Wallace, an introverted African-American transplant from Alabama, is at odds with the lakeside Midwestern university town where he is working toward a biochem degree. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with a young straight man, conspire to fracture his defenses, while revealing hidden...