Open When Alone

"Reading Robert Travieso is like free-falling from a plane. . . . His voice's momentum will seize you, his story's fierce energy will levitate you, and his piercing details will leave you as poked full of holes as a sieve." -Susan Choi, author of Flashlight "Travieso is one of the most original writers I know. I can't wait for the rest of the world to discover his brilliant mind." -Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation "There was no line where I could say, there, there's where I turned into a gun, that's where I started to hurt people." As Dean dons a suit and prepares to join the party downstairs celebrating twenty years with his wife, Jane, he finds a note pressed into the toe of his left dress shoe labeled "open when alone". The letter is from his wife. The letter upends his life. What Dean thought was a cherished piece of the couple's history turns out to have been quite different for Jane. Dean conducts a thorough moral inventory of the important women in his life: his mother, a childhood sidekick, a high school hookup, his college girlfriend, and, Jane. As Dean attempts to excavate truth from the chaos of a young man's memory-What else did he get wrong? Open When Alone is an explosive debut, reminiscent of Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation but from a husband's perspective. Travieso has written a stunning portrait of a man in crisis and an unforgettable interrogation of the moments that make and break a life.