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How to Walk Away (novel)

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How to Walk Away
Cover of first edition, cover image: Untitled fresco by George Schneeman
AuthorLisa Birman
GenreLiterary Fiction
PublisherSpuyten Duyvil Press
Publication date
February 1st, 2015
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (softcover)
Pages288
ISBN9781941550021

How to Walk Away is a 2015 novel and the debut novel of Australian novelist Lisa Birman. The work was first published on 1 February 2015 in the United States by Spuyten Duyvil Press. The novel centers on veteran Otis and his wife Cat, a genealogist. How to Walk Away is an exploration of post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsion, body integrity disorder, and the grief of keeping secrets born in war.

Synopsis

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After three years in Afghanistan, Otis is adjusting to life back home. Struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, he obsessively replays the traumas of war, cataloging the names of the dead. Cat, his wife, is a genealogist who makes maps of families in an attempt to understand her world. When a car accident takes Otis's left arm, he is grateful to bear a physical loss that makes his damaged emotional self visible. As he recovers, he and Cat confront the silences upon which their marriage is built.[1]

Awards

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On March 17, 2016 Birman's novel was named a finalist, in the genre of literary fiction, by Colorado Humanities for their annual Colorado Book Awards.,[2] and on May 22, 2016 Birman's novel won the award for literary fiction.[3]

Reviews

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"How to Walk Away starts at the return. Enveloped and interspersed with letter narration, the short and shorter sections of the book craft a psychological domestic journey in three acts from Otis’ isolation to a delayed reunion with his wife, Cat. Birman's careful structure offers road signs for the reader travelling the confusion of the narrator's consuming obsessions." - Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, The Conium Review[4]

"Moment to moment we are with Otis as he tries to fit the pieces of himself back into the form called “normal.” We suffer his claustrophobia-along with his need to escape from his own thoughts." - Judith Podell, American Book Review[5]

See also

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  • The author was interviewed by Peggy Alaniz about the novel for the Woodland Pattern Book Center weblog.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "How to Walk Away".
  2. ^ "2016 Colorado Book Awards Finalists | Colorado Humanities". Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  3. ^ "2016 Colorado Book Award Winners | Colorado Humanities". www.coloradohumanities.org. Archived from the original on 26 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Book Review: "How to Walk Away," A Kind of Cartography". 31 January 2015.
  5. ^ Podell, Judith (2015). "What Lies Beneath". American Book Review. 36 (2): 21. doi:10.1353/abr.2015.0018. S2CID 144738830. Project MUSE 578868.
  6. ^ ""Peggy Alaniz interviews Lisa Birman"". Woodland Pattern Book Center. Retrieved 16 May 2024.