But Habash manages to make his protagonist both charismatic and repelling. It's hard to pull off a novel with an unreliable narrator, and they don't come much more unreliable than Stephen. 'Anyone who tells you you tried your best after you lose is telling you a lie.' 'Anyone who tells you wrestling is a team sport is telling you a lie,' he says. Stephen is not the type to take solace in his teammates' successes, or to accept anything less than outright victory. In his first three years on the school's wrestling team, he's distinguished himself, but he's fallen short of his ultimate goal: winning the Division IV NCAA championship in his weight class. Habash's novel follows Stephen's senior year at a small college in North Dakota. He's hard to know, but he's also one of the most unforgettable characters in recent American fiction.

It's difficult to know when to trust Stephen, the title character of Gabe Habash's powerhouse debut novel - he's either given to compulsive lies, or his grip on reality is considerably less strong than he himself is. 'I am only a giant collection of gas and light and will.' Or maybe he's not really any of these things: 'There is no real Stephen Florida,' he says. He's possibly the best college wrestler in the state of North Dakota. He's an obsessive with poor impulse control. He's an orphan who maybe hasn't yet come to terms with the death of his parents in a car crash. Who is Stephen Florida? It's a little hard to say. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Stephen Florida Author Gabe Habash

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash