These Can't Be Choices — Cori Cooper Di Biase

Ben lives in fear of the hurt he has caused. He exists at a distance, hoping for the clarity of solitude and routine. Yet, even as he tries to hide himself from complexity and connection, Ben's life becomes entangled with the lives of others. Through love and anger, and in fear that he might only be the worst of himself, Ben fumbles toward a reckoning. Disquieting and darkly poetic, These Can't Be Choices explores the mind of a man living in the shadow of his own impossible crime. It lays bare the spare and upsetting world of its protagonist: unrelenting, hypnotic, and often profane. Cori Di Biase is a graduate of Bard College at Simon's Rock and Purchase College. Born in New Jersey and raised in Allegany County, New York, he now lives in Montana with his wife and stepdaughter. These Can't Be Choices is his debut novel.