I am excited to share that my debut novel, GREAT DISASTERS, will be published by Tin House Books, forthcoming September 30 2025.
The book has been named a 2025 Most Anticipated Book by Publishers Weekly, Debutiful, Lit Hub, Chicago Review of Books, and elsewhere. You can pre-order the book here.
I would love to share more news related to the book with you over the coming year. If you are interested in receiving updates on the book—pre-order information, upcoming readings, interviews, etc.—please do sign up at the form at the bottom of the page. I promise to be judicious in sharing updates ; )
Here’s a little more about the book: Great Disasters is a novel set in Chicago against the backdrop of 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the protests against them. The book follows six young men coming of age in that context, and explores themes of friendship, addiction, first love, diverging paths, memory, and how people are shaped to be the people they become. It is a story about a betrayal, and the unexpected consequences of that betrayal in the lives of the six friends. I can’t wait to share it with you.
“Great Disasters is at once an artistic coming-of-age novel and a scathing indictment of our already-fairly-long American 21st century. The book is so inviting and entertaining that its ultimate emotional impact sneaks up on you.” - Christopher Beha, author of The Index of Self-Destructive Acts
“Chambers has written a tender, beautifully observed debut novel, an empathic recollection of becoming, of love and what it is made of. In Chambers’ kind voice is wonder at it all. Great Disasters is great fiction.” - Christine Schutt, author of Florida, Prosperous Friends, and Pure Hollywood.
“From the early pages of this novel, you can tell this is a poet with a master grasp on language and movement. In novel form, Chambers gives readers a gift of breathtaking prose brimming with empathy and soul as friends navigate through the pitfalls of life (heartbreak, addiction, a country falling apart) in 2010s Chicago.” - Debutiful
”Grady Chambers, author of the collection North American Stadiums, brings his skills to bear on a coming-of-age story about six young men as they move through childhood and the diverging paths of early adulthood. Dana Spiotta writes, “With great compassion and an evocative sense of place and history, Chambers captures the intricate ways adulthood is shaped by the long shadows of adolescence.” - Lit Hub