5

Henry Gallagher is going to die. His liver is failing and, with each drink, his chances of living past age thirty crumble around him. Over a chaotic two-year blur, he stumbles through inebriated nihilism, reveling in an unending parade of violence, blackouts, half-hearted AA meetings, psych ward stints, dangerous sexual encounters, suicidal behavior, and shattered relationships. Two events force Henry to look inward and face the disturbing truths left to fester for so many years, drenched in booze, but always staring up at him from the bottom of a whiskey bottle: During his darkest hour, he receives an offer that threatens to change his life forever and a mental diagnosis that, in Henry's mind, makes him more monster than man.

In his highly confessional style, Jack Moody's scathingly witty novel follows the hero's journey of a man hurtling into the depths of addiction, mental illness, and self-destruction. Wrestling with his survival instinct and self-awareness, his journey will inevitably-with his shield or on it-come to an end.