Mamush

Mamush is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. He is married to Hannah, with whom he has a young son. They live together in Paris, France. At the novel’s start, Mamush leaves home for Washington, DC over the Christmas holiday to visit his mother and father Samuel. Instead of traveling directly to his mother’s home, Mamush ends up buying a new flight to Chicago, Illinois, where he, Samuel, and his mother lived for eight years when Mamush was a child. In Chicago, Mamush convinces himself that he is going to unearth the answers to outstanding questions about his family’s past. He ends up camping out in a squalid hotel room where he uses drugs and gets drunk. Worried about him, Hannah invokes Samuel’s help to bring Mamush home to DC. By the time Mamush lands in DC, Samuel is dead...