Opioid, Indiana — Brian Allen Carr

"Full of gorgeous language and wild insights." -- Nick Flynn

Set in the beleaguered heart of Indiana's opioid crisis, Brian Allen Carr's timely and tender novel about a teen struggling to find his place in the world -- and come up with $800 rent -- is at once a moving rumination on the hopeful power of story and a harrowing insight into modern America. It is a book you won't soon forget.

Seventeen-year-old Riggle is living in rural Indiana with his uncle and uncle's girlfriend after the death of his parents. Now his uncle is missing, probably on a drug binge. It's Monday, and $800 in rent is due Friday. Riggle, who's been suspended from school, has to either find his uncle or get the money together himself. His mission exposes him to a motley group of Opioid locals -- encounters by turns perplexing, harrowing, and heartening.

With empathy and insight, Carr explores what it's like to be a high school kid in the age of Trump -- a time of economic inequality, addiction, Confederate flags, and mass shootings. Through the voice of its unforgettable protagonist -- charismatic, confused, searching, by turns cynical and naïve, wise and impulsive -- Opioid, Indiana pierces to the heart of our moment.