Cherry
Nico Walker
Knopf Publishing Group
<b><i>Jesus' Son</i>meets<i>Reservoir Dogs</i>in a breakneck-paced debut novel about love, war, bank robberies, and heroin.</b><br /><br />From its very first pages, Nico Walker's poignant, unflinching fiction debut hooks you in with its vivid portrayal of two people adrift in the world but anchored to each other. The woman who captures our narrator's heart is the unforgettable Emily. But when he loses her, he makes an indelible statement of his own: he joins the Army.<br /><br />The outcome will not be good for either of them.<br /><br />As a medic in Iraq, he is unprepared for the realities that await him. His fellow soldiers huff computer duster, abuse painkillers, and watch porn. Many of them die. When he comes home, his PTSD is profound. As the opioid crisis sweeps through the Midwest, it drags both him and Emily along with it. As their addiction worsens, and with their money drying up, he stumbles on what seems like the only possible solution -- robbing banks.<br /><br />Written by a singularly talented, wildly imaginative novelist whose powerful prose draws strength from the most unlikely origins,<i>Cherry</i>is a bracingly funny and unexpectedly tender work of fiction straight from the dark heart of America.