Night Navigation

A mother and her adult, drug-addicted son struggle for redemption and recovery in this “dark debut” novel that “has the power to lift and inspire” (Publishers Weekly).Night Navigation opens on a freezing-rain night in upstate New York: the kindling gone, the fire in the woodstove out. Retired high-school art teacher Del Merrick’s thirty-seven-year-old manic-depressive son, Mark, needs a ride, but she’s afraid to make the long drive north to the only detox that has a bed.   Through each of the four seasons, Night Navigation takes readers into the deranged, darkly humorous world of the addict—from break-your-arm dealers, to boot-camp rehabs, to Rumi-quoting NA sponsors. Mark can’t find a way to live in this world; Del can’t stop trying to rescue him. And yet, during this long year’s night, through relapse and despair, Mark and Del see flare-ups of hope as they fitfully, painfully try to steer toward the light.   Told in the alternating voices of an addict and his mother, this “harrowing . . . cathartic” novel adds new depths to our understanding and literature of parents and their troubled children (Kirkus Reviews).