Spiotta, Dana

At once a love letter to the Salt City and a smart and introspective device for illuminating the present through the very recent past, this novel flattens the American desire for self-realization in the face of catastrophe.

Spiotta does a masterly job of getting under the skin of disparate characters, revealing the kinds of insecurities that plague us all, successful or not. [See Prepub Alert, 9/14/15.]

A National Book Award finalist for Eat the Document, an account of the 1970s underground movement, Spiotta here tells a tale of two siblings who started out as kids in the Seventies and are still close—so close, in fact, that fragile artist Nic now shows his work only to protective sister Denise...