Problems — Jade Sharma

A young woman's life in New York City is upended by addiction in this debut novel “that is equal parts irreverent and hilarious, depressive and hopeful” (Bustle). Maya is a young woman with a smart mouth, time to kill, and a heroin hobby that isn't much fun anymore. She's been able to get by in New York on her wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves her, and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely calibrated life descends into chaos. Maya's struggle to be alone, to be a woman, and to be thoughtful, imperfect, and alive in a world that doesn't really care what happens to her is rendered with dead-eyed clarity and unnerving charm. Rendered in frank, graphic, highly charged language where “everything rings true” and “leaves you on a high” (The Guardian), The New York Times exclaimed “a novel about a heroin addict shouldn't be this much fun to read.”