Spin Cycle - by Alfredo Botello (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Best Fiction, Storytrade Awards (winner across all fiction categories)

Finalist, Hawthorne Prize

"A must read for anyone who feels lost in the wilderness caring for an older loved one." -Bella Andre, New York Times bestselling author of The Sullivans

"An intimate yet epic journey digging into the messy truths and secrets connecting parents and their children." -Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail

High school math teacher Ezra Pavic is having a hard time. His wife left him, his son barely tolerates him, and now he's being blindsided by something he never saw coming: the emotional spin cycle of parenting a parent. His mother Irene has dementia, and it's exhausting. Caring for her is a constant source of frustration, resentment, and guilt. Lots of guilt.

Overwhelmed by it all, Ezra opens a strip-mall school to help others-and himself-become better caregivers. As he learns to handle the personalities of his nine misfit students, Ezra must also navigate the complex feelings he has toward his mother. It doesn't help that she adores his do-nothing slacker brother.

But Ezra hasn't told his students that he also has an agenda beyond becoming a more compassionate caregiver. And, it turns out, so does one of his students. Ezra confides the entire tale to his childhood friend Danny as he attempts to sort it all out and find room in his heart again for compassion and love.

Review Quotes

"An intimate yet epic journey digging into the messy truths and secrets connecting parents and their children."-Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail

"Botello manages to delve into themes of guilt, frustration, and resentment with a pen that is both compassionate and razor sharp-and with hope and humor, even in the bleakest of moments. A must read for anyone who feels lost in the wilderness caring for an older loved one."-Bella Andre, New York Times bestselling author of The Sullivans

"Alfredo Botello paints his characters with a deft and sensitive touch, one that provides subtle insights into the anguishes and disappointments of growing older. Spin Cycle explores the challenges of caring-for parents with dementia, for those around us, and ultimately for ourselves. His characters resonate with humanity in all its flaws and imperfections, but with all its dignity and resolve too. This is a special book, in places as quiet as a whisper but as bold as the human heart."-Greg Fields, author of The Bright Freight of Memory, PEN/Faulkner Award nominee

"This is the kind of bittersweet drama I could eat up by the spoonful. You'll never look at a simple scoop of strawberry ice cream the same way again."-Matthew J. Gilbert, author of Hawkins Horrors