From “one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation” (The New York Times)—a ghost story set in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, an elegiac consideration of grief, devotion (filial and romantic), and the vanishing and persistence of all things—seen and unseen.
“Is it an allegory? Is it real? It doesn’t matter. Exploring sibling love, death, and longing, it’s a novel with big questions, no answers, and it’s absolutely brilliant.” —Lit Hub
Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs—a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart
A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all...
With her distinctive, irresistible wordplay and singular wry humor and wisdom, Lorrie Moore has given us a magic box of longing and surprise as she writes about love and rebirth and the pull towards life. Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true.
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore.
About the Author
LORRIE MOORE is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Praise For…
“Moore’s sterling literary reputation is anchored most firmly to her short stories, but in her long-awaited fourth novel, her prose is just as breathtakingly crystalline, her humor wily and piquant . . . Moore’s exhilarating dialogue is acrobatic, her descriptions ravishing . . . A curious spin on Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, with frissons of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), Moore’s unnerving, gothic, acutely funny, lyrically metaphysical, and bittersweet tale is an audacious, mind-bending plunge into the mysteries of illness, aberration, death, grief, memory, and love.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
“Moore is revered for her wit, and fans will not be disappointed by the novel’s dark humor. The prose might be her finest.” —Claire Messud, Harper’s
“Thoughtful and witty . . . The author’s fans will love it, and those new to Moore will want to see what else they’ve been missing.”—Publishers Weekly
“[Moore] manages the impossible in her writing: every other sentence is a gut-punch or the funniest line you’ve ever read, and it coheres into some of the truest writing about life—for what is life if not constantly either hilarious or devastating, and often both? I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home is a ghost story, a love story, a family elegy, and a search for answers both tangible and ephemeral: it’s the world of Lorrie Moore, beckoning us back in.” —LitHub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2023”
“Moore has long been an expert at mood-setting, and the plot lines develop an uncanny resonance, Moore’s fear of death, ghost stories and our inability to save people while managing to be, in a very Moore-ian way, weirdly funny.” —Mark Athitakis, L.A. Times
“An exquisite exploration of grief, longing, and our relationship with the past . . . mixing comedy with tragedy, and exploring what it means to be alive.”—Kristyn Kusek Lewis, Real Simple
“Moore’s trademark precision prose works throughout to move the story forward and ensure the reader is both laughing and crying—warning: this is a deeply emotional read.” —Yvonne Garrett, The Brooklyn Rail
“There is much enjoyment to be had with Moore’s unique style, particularly the extended, loopy dialogue, replete with wordplay, song lyrics, conspiracy theories, literary and pop culture references. By its end, [the novel] becomes a moving tale of longing, grief, and acceptance.” —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Library Journal
“The novel includes historical flashbacks – bleak letters to a sister from a Civil War–era woman ‘braced at every turn for disenchantment’ – and reflections on everything from mobile phone obsession to the mentality of a school shooting generation, all in Moore’s gorgeous prose. And Moore’s sharp wit underpins everything. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home explores death, grief and the past in a way that is full of wisdom and empathy. I enjoyed so many moments in this novel . . . As with all the best fiction, Moore offers a way of looking at the world that brings a fresh perspective on something well worn. This is a time trip well worth taking.” —Martin Chilton, Independent (UK)
“A wry, shape-shifting meditation on how we might continue to commune with the dead . . . Both playful and poignant, this story of siblings and mental health slips the bonds of time and mortality. It bears Moore’s s trademark psychological depth and humor. At the sentence level, the work is never less than a revelation.” —Rebecca Foster, Shelf Awareness
“Is it an allegory? Is it real? It doesn’t matter. Exploring sibling love, death, and longing, it’s a novel with big questions, no answers, and it’s absolutely brilliant.” —Emily Firetog, Lit Hub, “The 28 Novels You Need to Read This Summer”
