The Debris Field

The beloved memoirist and bestselling author of RUNNING WITH SCISSORS returns with his first novel in nearly thirty years.

Set in 1990s New York City, The Debris Field follows a wealthy nuclear family—a photographer mother, an early dot-com squatter father, their loner son, and fashion-obsessed daughter—who have everything. Or do they?

Living bored in the ultimate apartment, enjoying fancy takeout, their household help, and the ultimate white privilege—the luxury of being dispassionate—the Biltstone family finally comes to life after seeing something on TV. A plane crash in suburban Ohio is dominating newly available twenty-hour-hour cable news, and it takes an event of this magnitude to unify the family, or even get them out of the house. They all know instantly what they must do: embark on an absurd journey—a family vacation of sorts—to experience the scene of their and the country’s obsession. And once they are there, we come to find out, truly, who they are.

Augusten Burroughs’s first novel in twenty-seven years, The Debris Field is distinctly Augusten Burroughs: scathing and funny, it wickedly skewers white privilege via a family and decade that come vividly alive, from the clothes, food, and furniture to the casual racism and distinctly pre–9/11 mélange of ease and doom. It is provocative and satisfying, with writing that is lyrical and potent, darkly funny and deeply true.