Rx

Author: Garin Cycholl

Publisher: Atmosphere Press (2022)

First, do no harm...
 
A patient comes to you with vague but troubling symptoms. He seems to know a little too much about the odd sickness you've seen in other patients lately. You start to wonder what he's been up to in his chicken coop. Is he growing the next plague? Should you call the FBI? The only problem is that you're not really a doctor.
 
Taking on his dead father's identity, a man becomes intent on practicing medicine in an out of the way town. He watches the nation bubble into a new kind of civil war around him. A con man amidst rumors, homemade bombs, and a developing sense that he has been "made," Rx wrestles with a distinct American identity-slippery and always in flight. Between a violent "here" and an anxious "there," a wider, remapped "America" emerges.
 
"A deeply American story in the guise of a road trip novel. Elegiac, original and compelling."

–Ling Ma
 
"With wit, sticky situations, one-of-a-kind characters, and a captivating mystery, Cycholl probes the idiopathic American psyche.  His diagnosis, Rx, is a potent prescription for literary joy."

–Alex Shakar