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ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES‘S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2023, BET’S FAVORITE MEMOIRS OF 2023, AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD 2024“A brilliant and brilliantly different” (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture, now in paperback. Surrounded by the failure of systems including his family, the public school system, and democratic society, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling like he was under constant threat. Roaches fell from the ceiling, most lessons were taught through violence, and, to make matters worse, he always seemed to be hungry. To escape these foes, he began retreating inward. In
Sink, Thomas queries the possibility of escape through fantasy worlds, while grappling with children’s inability to change their circumstances.
In a series of exacting and fierce vignettes, Thomas guides readers through the trouble of cruelty without heroics or reprieve and explores how the cycle of hostility permeates our environments. And yet even in the depths of isolation, there are unexpected moments of joy carved out as Thomas finds kinship.
Sink follows Thomas's coming-of-age towards an understanding of what it means to lose the desire to fit in and how good it feels to build community, love, and salvation on your own terms.
About the author
Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and the story collection Leviathan Beach (Grand Central, 2025). His prose, poetry and criticism has been published in The Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Dilettante Army, and The New York Times Book Review. Sink was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English at The University of Pennsylvania and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College. At The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, he also teaches courses in Black Studies, Poetics, Queer Theory, and Video Games.
Summary
A wrenching, redemptive, and "brilliant coming-of-age story (New York Times) about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture, now in paperback.
Foreword
A wrenching, redemptive, and "brilliant coming-of-age story (New York Times) about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture, now in paperback.
