Leaving the Sea: Stories

By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, Ben Marcus's <i>Leaving the Sea</i> is a ground breaking collection of stories from one of the single most vital, extraordinary, and unique writers of his generation.<br><br>In the heartfelt &quot;I Can Say Many Nice Things,&quot; a washed-up writer toying with infidelity leads a creative writing workshop on board a cruise ship. In the dystopian &quot;Rollingwood,&quot; a divorced father struggles to take care of his ill infant, as his ex-wife and colleagues try to render him irrelevant. In &quot;Watching Mysteries with My Mother,&quot; 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, <i>Leaving the Sea</i> is the work of an utterly unique writer at the height of his powers.