NOBODY'S SON
By Mark Slouka
W.W. Norton & Co., October 18, 2016
From World War I to the present, Slouka pieces together a remarkable story of refugees and war, displacement and denial―admitting into evidence memories, dreams, stories, the lies we inherit, and the lies we tell―in an attempt to reach his mother, the enigmatic figure at the center of the labyrinth. Her story, the revelation of her life-long burden and the forty-year love affair that might have saved her, shows the way out of the maze.
Selected Praise
“This singular memoir reverberates with obstinate, refreshing candor. Mark Slouka demonstrates powerfully the ways that memory is a function of imagination.” (Phillip Lopate)
“Mark Slouka's superb memoir should become a classic… A heart-wrenching tale of the demise of a family, told with the hard-won honesty and insight of a genuine artist. I was enthralled from start to finish.” (Lynne Sharon Schwartz)
“A remarkable story remarkably told… I have never before read anything except Nabokov’s Speak, Memory that so relentlessly and shrewdly exhausted the kindness and cruelty of recollection’s shaping devices.” (Geoffrey Wolff)
About the Author
Mark Slouka is the author of, most recently, the award-winning novel Brewster. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Brewster, New York.