Literary Trauma

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

In the thick of lockdown, 2020, poet, critic, and memoirist Jamie Hood published her debut, how to be a good girl, an interrogation of modern femininity and the narratives of love, desire, and violence yoked to it. The Rumpus praised Hood’s “bold vulnerability,” and Vogue named it a Best Book of 2020. In Trauma Plot, Hood draws on disparate literary forms to tell the story that lurked in good girl’s margins—of three decades marred by sexual violence and the wreckage left behind.

🔥Two novels. One haunting journey through collapse, survival and the fragile thread of humanity. From New York Times, USA TODAY, Amazon top-15, #1 Amazon Thriller and Dark Fantasy Bestseller Tamara Rose Blodgett / Marata Eros ✨ For fans of The Last of Us, The Road, and Station Eleven 📦 Includes the first two books in the Through Darkness Chronicles — plus an exclusive sneak peek at Book 3: Through a Dark Mirror. ⚔️ What happens when survival is no longer enough? A devastating EMP collapses the grid. Water dries up. Society disintegrates. And three separate groups—SEALs, ...

A Solitary Man, a Lost Boy, and the Journey to Redemption In the serene wilderness of Northern Michigan, school custodian Buddy Robertson finds solace in nature’s rhythms and the healing simplicity of the changing seasons—from winter’s treasured collections to spring’s maple syrup production and the return of migratory birds that signal the forest’s awakening. Yet beneath this peaceful existence lies a past marred by loss and abuse—a past Buddy has long sought to escape. When Buddy meets Ben, a young boy grappling with his own demons, he is forced to confront the shadows of his ...

As a rebellious teenager, Honey managed to escape her father’s circle of influence and reinvent herself in a world of art and beauty, working for a high-end auction house in Los Angeles. Now in her twilight years, she decides to return home and unexpectedly falls in love. But in her family, nothing has changed. When her grandnephew Michael bursts into her life in what appears to be a drug-fueled frenzy, and her Lexus gets jacked, it’s hard to keep minding her own business. As old cruelties begin to resurface, Honey is no longer sure what she really wants—to forgive or to avenge.

Shadows and Lights Within Me A Magical Realism Novel of Healing and Inner Light — A Modern Fable of Self-Discovery What if the truest parts of you were waiting in the shadows? In a world just adjacent to our own, the line between what is felt and what is real has vanished. A worn notebook doesn’t just hold words—it breathes. A forgotten memory can cast a literal shadow. And the things we can’t bring ourselves to say become glowing, tangible objects we carry inside. Shadows and Lights Within Me is a breathtaking novel of magical realism that explores the journey of healing through a ...

Why do downcast, O my soul? A death sentence is handed down to a young man, but hope may still linger in the picturesque town of Acantilado del Mar. Stefan Campeau, a 27-year-old facing a terminal illness, seeks solace in the scenic town of Acantilado del Mar with his faithful dog by his side. However, fate has other plans as he encounters the last two people he wants to see - the beautiful Samantha and a mysterious oncologist, Dr. Miguel Calderón. While Samantha offers to care for Stefan's dog after his passing, Dr. Calderón convinces him to continue treatment. As Stefan delves deeper ...

On September 17, 2024, the most coordinated strike ever seen in the Middle East unfolded Thousands of pagers exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria. The attack targeted Hezbollah operatives, many of them senior commanders. At least 59 were killed and more than 4,500 were injured. The explosion sowed unprecedented destruction at the heart of the organization. The shock was immediate: Who was behind it? How were the devices planted? And why now? Hassan Nasrallah, the long-standing leader, held himself personally responsible for the disaster. Waves of doubt, anger, and ...

In the opening scene of Falling Man, Keith Neudecker emerges from the smoke and ash of the burning tower where he worked, and makes his way to the apartment of his ex-wife and young son uptown. Throughout this bold and haunting novel, DeLillo traces the way the events of September 11 kindled or rekindled relationships, reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world.

With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father's first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances.

“Newman’s prose is a bombardment.” — The Nation “It’s bright lights and dark shadows, and it’s certainly not for the fainthearted.” — Crime author Paul Brazill “WITNESS the flowering of increasingly evil acts.” — Alasdair McLeod, Author and Poet “Newman WRITES with a FLAMETHROWER.” — Crime author Timothy Hallinan “Newman is still capable of throwing flames.” — People, Things, and Literature “Newman is the strange new NORMAL.” — Sliced Magazine Roll up, roll up... Meet The Bearded Lady, The Strongman, Jimmy the Tightrope Walker, and Joey the Clown. ...

Clara's sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Eight-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents' efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered. Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he's suspected of a crime.

"Violet Lemon" is a heart-wrenching, life-affirming journey through five decades of pain, survival, and ultimately—peace. It begins in December 1970, when young Violet and her brother are torn from their home and the loving father they once knew. Thrust into a world of instability, abuse, and betrayal, Violet’s childhood becomes a battlefield. Raised by a toxic mother and an abusive stepfather, she grows up surrounded by domestic violence, mental illness, addiction, and poverty. Told in powerful vignettes, this raw and poetic novel follows Violet over 50 years as she grapples with PTSD,...

In a forgotten farmhouse surrounded by an orchard that blooms out of season, memory is more than something you carry—it’s something that carries you. When Lena Hearst discovers a single rusted nail on her living room floor, it marks the beginning of a slow unraveling. The house isn’t falling apart. It’s unbuilding itself. Room by room, root by root, memory by memory. As the past resurfaces through glyphs etched in bark and dreams that speak in soil, Lena must confront a legacy planted long before her time—a buried presence that remembers everything, and asks to be remembered in ...

A career-making assignment. An elusive, charismatic sociopath. Will Sarah’s big break secure her fame or savage her soul? The Interview takes you on one woman’s transformational journey as she faces the demons of her past while navigating the manipulations of an enigmatic man. Sarah, a young reporter with a deeply troubled history, wins an interview with a powerful business mogul who is rarely seen in public and has never before granted an interview. This assignment could make or break her career. Little did she know it could also break her spirit. Sarah must tackle direct challenges to...

Chicago, sometime. Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different.

Isidore Mazal is 11 years old, the youngest of six siblings living in a small French town. He doesn't quite fit in. Isidore has never skipped a grade or written a dissertation. But he notices things the others don't, and asks questions they fear to ask. So when tragedy strikes the Mazal family, Isidore is the only one to recognize how everyone is struggling with their grief, and perhaps the only one who can help them - if he doesn't run away from home first.

Kehuan has no place he could call his own. That's why he needs his own person. When he lands in yet another foreign city, a young, angry boy without friends or real family, his prospects look bleak. But then this carefree little street child appears on his path, with her bright eyes and sunny smile. They come from different worlds, but what does it matter? Niki needs someone who'd look out for her, and Kehuan seems the only candidate for the job. The strange duo soon becomes inseparable, and the powerful connection between them starts to shape their entire lives. It even helps them build ...

Alison Donnelly has suffered for love. Still stuck in the small Northern Irish town where she was born, working for her father's real estate agency, she hopes to pick up the pieces and get her life back together. Her sister, Liz, a fiercely independent college professor who lives in New York City, is about to return to Ulster for Alison's second wedding before heading to an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea to make a TV show about the world's newest religion.

Harrison Bellamy was born into a world that didn’t want him. An absent father. An abusive stepdad. Three suicide attempts before he turned twenty-one. By the time he found love, married, and raised four kids, the scars were already deep—and some still bled in silence. But now, in the shadow of sixty-five, with eight grandchildren who see him as something he never believed he could be—a good man—Harrison is faced with the one question he’s never dared to ask: What if the past doesn’t get the final word? Told with grit, grace, and a staggering emotional honesty, What the Years ...