After growing up with an alcoholic mother and an intermittent stepfather, Alex pines for connection, even as he sabotages his life with substances, and substitutes one failed relationship for the next. Shuffling from troubled home to chaotic institution, he narrates his strange search through Chicago’s gritty gutters and lonely lakefront spaces with a voice that is clear, honest—and unforgettable.

Anthony Koranda’s debut Broken Bottles is earning comparisons to Denis Johnson and Nelson Algren. It’s a searing debut destined for a space among the classics of Chicago literature—a story both strange and familiar about one person’s path through the chaos of youth, in a quest for acceptance and hope.