'Suberb . . . vivid' TELEGRAPH

'The arrival of a writer of considerable gifts' TLS

'Michael Deagler is the real deal . . . a truly intelligent work from a clearly intelligent writer' PERCIVAL EVERETT

'Illuminating and moving' AIMEE BENDER

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Dennis Monk is about to spend his first summer sober. At twenty-six he is ready to re-join sensible adult life, but just when Dennis needs stability, his uptight parents kick him out into a world of couch-surfing.

Everything around him has changed and everyone he knows seems to be doing better than he is. At every street corner, former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers threaten to burst the bubble of his recovery. And Dennis Monk is about to learn the difference between getting sober and staying sober in this new world.

Early Sobrieties is a devastatingly witty novel about coming of age a second time. Deagler’s debut marks the arrival of an astonishing new voice in American fiction.

"Superb . . . Deagler is very good. His prose is conversational and vivid; his characters talk and act like real people, in constantly surprising and plausible ways; and everything that happens, no matter how low-key or incidental to the plot, has the detailed intricacy of ordinary life" - Telegraph

"All we have is Monk's peripatetic wanderings and the pleasure of his voice, which is consistently funny and wise . . . There's a sense of dislocation or dissociation in this recovering addict's observations, which Deagler perfectly articulates . . . What makes the novel cohere, and what makes it such a pleasure, is Monk's stream-clear voice and his growing insight into his condition." - The Spectator

"Monk is an ideal vehicle for Deagler's fine observational skills . . . refreshing. Early Sobrieties marks the arrival of a writer of considerable gifts . . . His dialogue is as crisp as a virgin mojito and his prose has the buoyant energy of a hangover-free Saturday morning" - TLS