This excerpt from Jen Beagin's first novel, PRETEND I'M DEAD, tells the story of Mona's relationship with a recovering heroin addict whom she calls "Mr. Disgusting." Mona meets Mr. Disgusting at the needle exchange where she volunteers after work, and as their relationship begins, one wonders what force inside Mona compels her toward such a self-destructive, and destructed, man. In her introduction, Emily Gould writes, "This book is the magical kind that illuminates a small, self-contained interior world so completely that you feel that you’ve experienced another life within your own. As I closed Pretend I’m Dead, I felt unaccountably sad—not because of what happens in the story, which is a little bit sad, but because I wanted to keep spending time with Mona and stay inside her head. The story excerpted here is only the beginning, and this book is the beginning of a literary career I’ll be watching closely, hoping to fall in love again with something or someone disgusting, compelling, funny, and real like all of us truly are."

Publication Year: 2015