Barker House

Moloney’s taut, haunting, and surprisingly hopeful debut takes an unblinking look at America’s criminal justice system. Built as a series of linked stories that pivot between the perspectives of nine officers who work at a bleak New Hampshire jail—including veterans such as Leon, who works in the kitchen; Big Mike, who moonlights as a strip club bouncer; and rookie Brenner, the only female recruit—the narrative tracks the events of a year as characters endure family tragedy, romantic entanglements begin and fade, marriages crumble, and officers die. But no matter what’s going on outside the jail’s walls, it’s the workplace frustrations and power struggles within that dominate everyone’s attention and inescapably shape them. The author, himself a veteran corrections officer, anchors the stories with quotidian details of prison life and a viscerally drawn setting that leaps off the page. One officer likens his unit to a slaughterhouse, filled with “old, shed animal matter” and stains that “look like scars from hacking tools.” This strong work is an indelible look at how people respond to extremes and fight to hold on to their humanity in dire conditions. (Apr.)