WE'RE ALL DAMAGED

WE'RE ALL DAMAGED: A LOVE STORY is the second novel from Matthew Norman. Matt can very easily be considered a contemporary of Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby and Matthew Quick. This is smart, well-written commercial fiction.

Andy Carter was happy. He had a solid job. He wore khakis. He ran 5Ks for charity. He was living a nice, safe Midwestern existence. And then his wife left him for a handsome paramedic down the street named Tyler.

WE’RE ALL DAMAGED: A LOVE STORY begins one year later.

Since the end of his marriage, Andy has lost his job, ruined his best friend’s wedding, and moved to New York City where he now lives in a startlingly tiny apartment with an angry cat named Jeter that isn’t technically his. When the phone rings and Andy sees that it’s his mother calling, he knows what’s coming. He needs to go back to Omaha to say goodbye to his dying grandfather.

Back in the city he vowed he’d never return to, Andy is forced to deal with his past, which includes his ex, his ex’s new boyfriend, his right-wing talk radio host mother, his parents’ crumbling marriage, and his best friend…who, by the way, is still really angry with him.

Mixed in with all of these old problems, Andy encounters an entirely new complication. Her name is Daisy. She has fifteen tattoos, no job, and a difficult past herself. But she claims she is the only person that can help Andy be happy again, if only she wasn’t hiding a huge secret that will mess things up even more. Andy Carter needs a second chance at life, and Daisy, and the person Daisy allows Andy to be, may be his last chance to set things back on the right course.