Early Sobrieties - by Michael Deagler (Paperback)

About the Book

""Early Sobrieties is a second coming-of-age story that offers an existential trek into the enigma of sobriety itself and follows the eloquent confessional of an addict who is lost and found, then lost again"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

WINNER of the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

"'Just give me one more day, ' Monk says, and Early Sobrieties is such a wise and piercing book that we believe him."
--Charlie Lee, The New York Times Book Review

"Michael Deagler is the real deal."
--Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No

Don't worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He's sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances--if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood.

Monk's haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing better than him--and most of them aren't even doing that well. His run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers challenge his version of events past and present, revealing that recovery is not the happy ending he'd expected, only a fraught next chapter.

Like a sober, millennial Jesus' Son, Michael Deagler's debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America's middle class. Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace.

Review Quotes

"A moving, comic meditation on the impossibility of imposing narrative structure on our lives -- which, despite our best efforts, tend to be baggy things, marred by loose ends, tedious repetitions and harrowing codas. [...] Early Sobrieties is such a wise and piercing book."
--Charlie Lee, The New York Times Book Review

"Michael Deagler's Early Sobrieties is an exquisitely honest, humorous, and poignant depiction of life on the far side of addiction. Its hero, Dennis Monk, seven months sober, finds temporary shelter on the guest beds and couches of Philadelphia while seeking a foothold in the young adulthood that's been passing him by. This uniquely sustained portrait of recovery, all of its tedium shot through with moments of transcendence, lays bare the beautiful terror of each blank day, and the raw miracle of being alive."
--PEN/Hemingway Award judges' citation

★ "A young man surfaces from the depths of alcoholism in Deagler's pitch-perfect debut novel . . . This is a standout."
--Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

★ "Dennis is nimble-tongued and keenly observant, and the book offers all sorts of humorous delights. Yet the reader quickly sees, too, that irony is Dennis' protective coloration, that his wit is anxious and self-preserving. [ . . . ] Wry, sharp, charming, resistant to neat closures and easy turns--a debut of enormous promise."
--Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)

"Really dug this novel. Funny, wry, honest, unapologetic, and soulful."
--Michael Imperioli

"Told in episodic chapters and through Monk's witty, perceptive point of view, Deagler's debut novel skillfully examines the pitfalls and triumphs of sobriety, the challenges of having no clear direction in early adulthood, and the often winding paths we take toward the future."
--Allison Escoto, Booklist

"Sharp and self-aware, with deep insight packed into no-fuss prose: a quarter-life-crisis tale for the ages."
--Bustle, "Most Anticipated Book" of Spring 2024

"Deagler's debut shines as a raw and captivating introspective journey. He blends humor, insight, and sparkling prose to explore the complexities of sobriety and self-discovery."
--Debutiful

"[Monk] has a recovering addict's sense of the near-religious profundity of the day-to-day, the wry humor of a sober man among drunks, and a newly clear-eyed view of familiar people and places (or nearly familiar: the blackouts of his drinking days, their unknowability, haunt Monk's newfound sober ones)."
--Meghan Racklin, The Brooklyn Rail

"Grimly funny."
--Philadelphia Magazine

"South Philly is a distinct character here, its kudzu of grit, gentrification, and endless mazes of rowhouses bewildering to a soul newly emerged from the chemical haze of addiction."
--Broad Street Review

"Early Sobrieties highlights poignantly that in the battle against addiction, each day is an ongoing fight to stay away from your drug of choice and to continue the process of rebuilding your life. [...] Deagler's debut reflects a vivid sense of South Philly as a backdrop to this intimate story and I look forward to what comes next for (and from) him."
--Pei Chen, BookBrowse

"Michael Deagler's debut novel Early Sobrieties arrives with a fully formed literary voice best described as hysterical understatement . . . What makes the novel cohere, and what makes it such a pleasure, is Monk's stream-clear voice and his growing insight into his condition."
--The Spectator (UK)

"A really skillful piece of writing . . . [Deagler] pulls off the very difficult trick of transforming familiar autobiographical experience into something that's fresh and surprising."
--Renata Hopkins, Radio New Zealand

"Michael Deagler is the real deal. Early Sobrieties is surprising in all the best ways. The actions of the complex and complicated people in this world are not predictable, but always, frighteningly, believable. Deagler writes with great control and understatement. This is a truly intelligent work from a clearly intelligent writer."
--Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No

"Illuminating and moving--Deagler's debut pulls in a reader with such an inviting clarity. There's something about the honesty in this voice that creates a lot of room for the reader to connect, imagine, and feel."
--Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

"A luminous and observant debut about all the strangeness of returning to the places that formed you. The prose is spectacular."
--Akil Kumarasamy, author of Meet Us by the Roaring Sea

"Emotionally raw, often jaded, but still full of wonder, Early Sobrieties is an incredibly funny and tender story. Michael Deagler does a fantastic job of bringing into relief the absurdities of being a young adult and trying to find your place in a changing world."
--Craig Finn, songwriter and frontman of The Hold Steady

"Early Sobrieties is a miracle, a debut of startling beauty, grit, and grace. Cutting into the glow of its lyricism and humor, the awesome glare of undeceived vision illuminates every page."
--Greg Jackson, author of The Dimensions of a Cave

"Funny, insightful, and, above all, well-written, Early Sobrieties is a pleasure to read. Deagler manages to tell the story of his bewildered and rudderless protagonist in a way that is not rudderless at all, but rather precise and meaningful."
--David Sanchez, author of All Day is a Long Time

About the Author

Michael Deagler's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Harper's, McSweeneys' Quarterly Concern, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City.