My Darling Boy
By John Dufresne
W. W. Norton, January 14, 2025
A brilliant and gut-wrenching novel about a father and son from a “generous and lyric storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Known for his tragicomic voice and unforgettable characters, John Dufresne tells the story of Olney, whose beloved son, Cully, collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida. Aided by his terminally ill girlfriend and the colorful inhabitants of a local motel–including a doomsday prepper, an ex-nun, a pair of blind twins with an acute sense of smell, and a devoutly Catholic shelter worker–Olney sets out to save his son. Hilarious and devastating in equal measure, My Darling Boy is a hero’s quest for our time, a testament to families touched by the opioid crisis, and a remarkable achievement from one of our most talented authors.
Selected Praise for John Dufresne
“Ghoulishly funny… Dufresne is an original talent.”
―Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review, on No Regrets, Coyote
“A novel so good you want to throw a party for it. It’s tense, unnerving, fearless, and funny as hell. Beautifully rendered on every page, it may be a crime novel in name but it’s literature for the ages.”
―Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River, on No Regrets, Coyote
“Hilariously dark…brings to mind the work of such masters as Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard. It's a lurid pleasure from beginning to end.”
―Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers, Little Children, and Election, on No Regrets, Coyote
“Marvelous.” ―The Boston Globe, on No Regrets, Coyote
“Distills high comedy from intense pain, philosophical insight from bayou murkiness… Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, on Louisiana Power & Light
“Rarely have I laughed so often while reading a book or, coming to the end, cried so hard. Love Warps the Mind a Little is a masterpiece of the genre that writers call the ‘funny-sad novel,’ where humor both defies and gives shape to grief. It is rich entertainment, sheer lunacy, moonshine for the wounded heart.”
—Julia Glass, author of I See You Everywhere, NPR’s All Things Considered
“Dufresne’s incandescent novel makes it clear that just living to tell a tale can be enough.” —People, on Requiem, MA
“John Dufresne imbues the most appalling stories with humor and such an even-handed warmth they almost glow. He rides the tragicomic edge.”
―Miami Herald, on Requiem, MA
“Dufresne’s characters are poignant, their frailties both pitiful and hilarious in this novel of the strong push and pull of family entanglements.”
―Booklist, on Requiem, MA
“Dufresne’s orchestration of wayward strands of storytelling makes him a worthy heir to Laurence Sterne, James Joyce and William Faulkner.”
―BookPage, on Requiem, MA
“If Raymond Chandler were reincarnated as a novelist in south Florida, he couldn’t nail it any better than John Dufresne.” —Carl Hiaasen, author of Strip Tease and Hoot, on I Don’t Like Where This Is Going
“A comic opera…tuneful, playful.” —The New York Times Book Review, on Deep in the Shade of Paradise
About the Author
John Dufresne is the author of twenty-five works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including Louisiana Power and Light and Love Warps the Mind a Little. He lives in Florida, where he teaches writing at Florida International University.
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