Island City

In Adamczyk’s discursive debut, a woman returns to her Midwestern hometown, having given up on making something of herself. After settling back into her mother’s house in Island City, the unnamed narrator, 37, spends the length of the novel drinking in a bar and telling her life story. (Island City is “the perfect place to give up,” she claims.) A series of anecdotes reveal information about the narrator’s family, her parent’s divorce, her abusive stepfather, her troubled relationships with her mother and sister, and her career’s downward trajectory, which peaked with a job writing for a “not great website.” She also details heart-wrenching memories of caring for her father, who died from cancer at 52, as well as the harrowing discovery of a dozen dead cats while cleaning out his garage. Before the cancer, her father had dementia, a condition she believes she shares, as “words became elusive.” Though the timeline is about as easy to follow as a barfly’s drunken ramble, Adamczyk hits her stride as the narrator begins to reckon with her roots. The format will test readers’ patience, but those willing to wait it out will find some affecting moments. Agent: Allison Devereux, Wolf Literary. (Mar.)