Involuntary Bliss

Fiction. A bond between three friends forms over a mutual fascination with an obscure Peruvian novella and is fractured by an accidental death. From the streets of Montreal's Plateau and Latin Quarter to the ruins of Machu Picchu, award-winning author Devon Code's INVOLUNTARY BLESS traces this tragic affinity with dark humour and linguistic verve.

Over one hazy weekend in late August, an unnamed narrator visits his troubled friend James following a gap of many months. The two young men are set adrift in the city by way of James's memories, which flow out of him as lush set pieces--an affair, a stint volunteering at a children's hospital, a striptease show--assembling a picture of James's haunted life in the wake of their close friend's death.

By turns comic, erotic, tender and harrowing, this freewheeling narrative sees Montreal's bohemians and biker gangs entwine with psychotropic shamanic practices in the mountains of Peru, in a tale of friendship and mortality as unpredictable as it is true to life.

"A wry elegy for youth and a melancholy ode to Montreal. Almost as disquieting as it is entertaining, INVOLUNTARY BLISS is a literary derangement of the senses and an elegant addition to the current stream of coming-of-age fiction."--Mike Steeves

"INVOLUNTARY BLISS is the right kind of coming-of-age-as-an-artist novel in that it's wry, dark, and mercifully self-aware. Even when he literally lets us admire his impressive scaffolding, Code remains a natural storyteller with a clear, urgent voice. This is a sophisticated and impressive debut."--Jonathan Bennett

"How does one create urgency and profound emotional attachment in a novel about two characters conversing as they wander around Montreal? By writing one beautiful, brilliant sentence after another. By constructing an essential, inimitable spiral of narrative encoded, like DNA, with a particular life. Devon Code is up to the job: INVOLUNTARY BLISS is a marvel."--Alissa York