Carry-On
by Chris Belden

Novel

In this startling debut novel, Chris Belden explores one man's descent into obsession and loneliness after the sudden breakup of his marriage. Bereft and plagued by anxiety, Caleb journeys from heat wave-stricken New York City to the Pacific Northwest in search of escape, only to find that we always drag our baggage with us, both literally and figuratively. Dark, at times disturbing, and often hilarious, Carry-on deftly walks the thread-thin tightrope between existential dread and laugh-out-loud comedy.

To read Carry-on is to enter into the mind of a character as obsessive and compelling as any of Roth’s and as funny and incisive as any of Franzen’s. Chris Belden’s tautly crafted book is chock-full of dark delight.

--Rachel Basch, author of The Passion of Reverend Nash

From its first grimly hilarious scene in the economy cabin of a plane headed west, Carry-on takes us on an unforgettable journey through the shifting terrain of a marriage gone wrong. As Caleb struggles to understand what has become of him and his wife, we move through bars and cheap motels, through the stark beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and through intricate layers of memory to approach slowly, inexorably, the darkest regions of anger and love. A powerful novel that tightens like a net around an unsuspecting reader;
you will not put it down.

—Nalini Jones, author of What You Call Winter