I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place

“Some books celebrate the human condition; others commiserate with us. This memoir does both.” —Helen Oyeyemi, NPR This spellbinding memoir by the National Book Award–nominated author of The Bird Artist begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a midwestern boy’s summer working in a bookmobile, under the shadow of his grifter father and the erotic tutelage of his brother’s girlfriend. Howard Norman’s life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part o