At the Bottom of Everything

This stunning novel of friendship, guilt, and madness tells the story of two friends torn apart by a terrible secret-and the dark adventure that neither of them ever meant to embark upon. It's been ten years since the incident, and Adam has long decided he's better off without his former best friend, Thomas. Adam is working as a tutor, sleeping with the mother of a student, spending lonely nights looking up his ex-girlfriend on Facebook, and pretending that he has some more meaningful plan for an adult life. But when he receives an email from Thomas' mother begging for his help, he finds himself drawn back into his old friend's world and to the past he's tried so desperately to forget. As Adam embarks upon a magnificently strange and unlikely journey, Ben Dolnick spins a tale of spiritual reckoning, of search and escape, of longing, and of reaching for redemption-a tale of near hallucinatory power.

About the Author :
Ben Dolnick is the author of the novels You Know Who You Are and Zoology, and his work has appeared in the New York Times and on NPR. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife. Chris Patton has narrated over seventy-five audiobooks. His voice can be heard narrating such titles as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the dystopian juggernaut Yesterday's Gone, Clive Barker's Books of Blood series, and two titles by Joyce Carol Oates. Chris began his career in theater at age ten, and his voice-over career at twenty-nine. Since then, he has voiced over two hundred anime titles, numerous commercials and e-learning and industrial projects, and several video games. He's also fronted a synthpop band called Paul Lynde Is Dead, written a teen urban fantasy about an emo vampire called Scene Immortal, and has appeared as a special guest at more than eighty-five pop-culture conventions.

Review :
A lively, often funny book about being young and smart and confused, fumbling through life in a middle-class American sort of way...Essentially a book about guilt, specifically the kind that results from a small mistake whose reverberations are disproportionately large...In this slim, surprisingly haunting book, Dolnick reminds us that part of being a healthy and functional human is a willingness to act a little bit selfish, a little cruel in our ability to walk away from the pain of others. -- "New York Times Book Review" Dolnick writes with the assurance and wisdom of an author twice his age. At the Bottom of Everything turns a story about a childhood friendship into a moving exploration of the deepest questions life offers. This book does something more important than depict the 'way we live now.' It asks whether the way we live now is really 'living' at all. -- "Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver" I found myself both breathlessly racing to the end of the book while also terrified to turn the final pages. It is one of those stories that will remain in my mind and heart for a long, long time. -- "Matthew Dicks, author of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend" In the follow-up to You Know Who You Are Dolnick expertly magnifies the minutiae of youth, loneliness, and a friendship gone wrong...Dolnick's insights into life's bleaker spells are wise and entertaining, making for an invigorating and transcendent reminder of how haunting old friendships can be. -- "Booklist" Poignant...A story that takes its strengths from the richly drawn characters. -- "Publishers Weekly"