After securing a teaching job at a foreign university on “the thinnest set of credentials,” a young man sets off for life in Varrenia, an impoverished eastern kingdom still emerging from the shadow of a decades-long dictatorship. Years later, living in the decadent capital of Garamdal, our protagonist watches a war unfold in the republic’s restive eastern provinces and reflects on what he has gained — and lost — in a life of travel.

About the author

In my late twenties, I did a short stint as a grad student in mathematical logic at the University of Amsterdam, where I learned that I am not smart enough to be a mathematician. After dropping out of grad school, I ended up staying in Europe for five years. This novel, greatly influenced by that experience, is my love letter to Europe and to that time.

I am also very proud to be able say that I grew up in Houston — I actually come from the same neighborhood as Lizzo, Mo Amer, and Tila Tequila, cultural luminaries all.

Previous publications

TBD

Influences

Some readers of my work have remarked that it shares an affinity with the following writers and books. In some cases, these figures represent inspirations that I have leaned into, in others, the similarities (of theme, style, subject matter) are more coincidental:

• In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin
• Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee
• Balkan Ghosts, Robert Kaplan
• A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipaul
• Paul Bowles
• Milan Kundera