THE FIFTH WALL

In this daring debut novel following in the hallowed footsteps of Black Sparrow titans Charles Bukowski and Lucia Berlin, Rachel Nagelberg, a genuine literary pioneer, explores the frail line between the human impulse to control everything and the futility of excessive efforts to do so. Incorporating cinematic elements and with her background in visual art apparent throughout, Nagelberg pushes the boundaries of the novel form while tackling timely themes of feminism, terrorism, and technology with razor-sharp wit and self-awareness. What Thackeray's Vanity Fair did for Victorian society, Nagelberg's novel does for 21st century America (and in a far more portable format). Combining the emotional depth of Eileen Myles with a plot worthy of a David Lynch film, this readable, literary, and thought-provoking work is for anyone who questions the status quo.

Rachel Nagelberg is an American novelist, poet, and conceptual artist living in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco and has had poems and stories published in numerous journals. She received a Lighthouse Works Fellowship, Fishers Island, NY, in 2015.