Nothing or Next to Nothing
a novella by
Barry Graham

ISBN: 978-1-59948-290-3
Cover price: $9.95

Projected release date: May 31, 2011. The Advance Discount price of $5.50 will be available until May 17, 2011.

About the Author

Barry Graham received his MFA from Rutgers University, where he currently teaches writing. He is the author of The National Virginity Pledge, which was a finalist for the NGI Book Award for Short Story Fiction. One of the stories therein was awarded the 2009 Jumpmettle Award for Excellence in Fiction, and two other stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Graham is the flash fiction editor for DOGZPLOT.

Synopsis

After finding their mother dead at the breakfast table and subsequently being abandoned by their father, half-brother and sister, Derek and Daisy Kehoe are left to fend for themselves. Their relationship quickly suffers from patterned violence, abuse, and neglect, until Daisy herself disappears under curious circumstances. Derek slowly gets his life in order, finding stability through college, a steady relationship, and money he inherits through a series of botched armed robberies. But of course, nothing stays stable for long. Everything and everyone in Derek’s life has an ulterior motive, reasons for embracing him and reasons for throwing him away.

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Comments

In a world in which nothing or next to nothing matters anymore, Barry Graham's hero Derek is doomed because he hasn't erased his last shred of decency yet. He suffers abuse, heartbreak, beatings, and ultimately the loss of the only person he ever cared for, because he can't believe in a world where a McDonald's restaurant might be the last church, and an okay BigMac our last prayer. Graham's book is an elegy to something we've lost without noticing or caring. It's a mean punch to the chin; it floors you, and still you'll be glad you took it.
--Stefan Kiesbye

Read the prologue in its entirety HERE

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