If You Lived Here You'd Already be Home

Stories

“These stories were my kind of stories—a little weird and magical and bittersweet.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
 
A middle-aged masochist in love with a comatose man. A gay birthday clown lamenting the loss of his beloved dog. An amateur veterinarian keeping watch over his suicidal daughter. And a bikini model with a barnacle stuck to her butt cheek. These are just a few of the characters who populate the quirky, offbeat world of If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home a world that feels at once alien and strangely familiar.
 
In these twenty-one brief, funny stories, John Jodzio documents his characters disappointment, frustration, and longing for a home that seems forever out of reach. By turns bleak and hopeful, cruel and tender, this is an exciting literary debut by a writer to watch, a writer with a unique and compelling voice.
 
“John Jodzio is the best kind of modern fiction writer: a thematic traditionalist who feels totally new.” —Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author
 
“John Jodzio has a spare, dark, funny style that manages to be sardonic without forfeiting sympathy. That’s really effing hard.” —Dessa, Doomtree recording artist and author of My Own Devices
 
“A set of colorful and seemingly fractured tales, each shining brilliantly alone, but also growing more vibrant as one story lays over another. Together they form an intricately stained glass window that looks out onto a whole new world.” —Hanna Tinti, national bestselling author