A novel told in short stories, The Affliction is an astounding fiction debut by an award-winning poet full of memorable characters across America and the Caribbean. Young beautifully weaves together the elaborate stories of many while holding together a clear focus: people are not always as they seem.

C. DALE YOUNG practices medicine and teaches in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. The author of four poetry collections, most recently The Halo (Four Way Books 2016), this is his first novel. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He lives in San Francisco.

— Binghamton University