Leaving the Sea: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)

By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, Ben Marcus€s Leaving the Sea is a ground breaking collection of stories from one of the single most vital, extraordinary, and unique writers of his generation.

In the heartfelt €œI Can Say Many Nice Things,€ a washed-up writer toying with infidelity leads a creative writing workshop on board a cruise ship. In the dystopian €œRollingwood,€ a divorced father struggles to take care of his ill infant, as his ex-wife and colleagues try to render him irrelevant. In €œWatching Mysteries with My Mother,€ a son meditates on his mother€s mortality, hoping to stave off her death for as long as he sits by her side. And in the title story, told in a single breathtaking sentence, we watch as the narrator€s marriage and his sanity unravel, drawing him to the brink of suicide. Surreal and tender, terrifying and life-affirming, Leaving the Sea is the work of an utterly unique writer at the height of his powers.