American Narcissus

The American dream is dead, and Los Angeles is burning. Hopeless and anesthetized, four lost souls contend with the darkest elements of the human experience in a desperate attempt to quench their thirst for meaning and connection in a world without a future.

For Arden Coover, a spun-out acid junkie with the ink still drying on a useless philosophy degree from Berkeley, it's in the potential salvation offered by a new relationship rife with promise but fraught with uncertainty. His fresh-out-of-high-school sister, Tess, is struggling to accept that her best option in life may lie in a convenient but loveless marriage to a rich, narcissistic novelist.

Ryland Richter, an alcoholic insurance executive with too much money and too few scruples, seeks toxic solace in the arms of a dangerously unhinged subordinate. And Baxter Kent, a stoned surfer who's addicted to AI pornography and afraid of women, tries to make things work with a prototypal sex robot that's incapable of even the most rudimentary forms of communication. From the acclaimed and controversial author of Dead Inside and I.