Preparation for the Next Life

About Preparation for the Next Life

WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER PRIZE • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A BEST BOOK OF 2014: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Brad Skinner, newly returned from three tours in Iraq, hitchhikes to New York hoping to exorcise his demons and reacclimate to American society. Zou Lei, an undocumented immigrant from Central Asia, catches a bus into the city, searching for a way to get by—or at least stay out of jail. Skinner and Zou Lei meet each other in the margins of the metropolis, each finding something they long for in the other, and their unlikely love story becomes the beating heart of this remarkable tale. 

Set in the underbelly of New York, Preparation for the Next Life exposes an America as seen from the fringes of society and, in devastating detail, lays waste to the myth of the American Dream through two of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction. Powerful, realistic, and raw, Atticus Lish’s masterful first novel is one of the most ambitious—and necessary—stories of our time.