Great Disasters is a set largely in Chicago against the backdrop of 9/11, the start of 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, protest, first love, diverging paths, and how people are shaped to be the people they become. Though though the book takes on big global issues, the story at its core is an intimate one about love, friendship, protest, and how to be—towards each other and ourselves.
“Grady Chambers’ novel...is stunning. [His characters’] search for meaning (sometimes lost in adolescent antics and alcohol) highlights grace, hope, and sobriety.” - The Christian Science Monitor
“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
”Don’t sleep on this one.” - Chicago Tribune
“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.
”Tender and taut in its elegiac prose, Grady Chambers’s debut Great Disasters perfectly captures the surreal and frightening culture of the day, making Great Disasters a remarkable retrospective on the War on Terror era and the ways in which it ensnared and destroyed a generation.” - Chicago Review of Books
“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
If you’d like to receive occasional updates on book news or upcoming readings, please sign up below.