High praise for
NIRVANA IS HERE
by Aaron Hamburger
A TENDER SELF-RECKONING, Nirvana Is Here brings the past full circle. Hamburger deftly reveals how incidents recede—even if they leave their mark—to bring new hopes into focus.
FOREWORD REVIEWS
A BEAUTIFUL, SAD, coming-of-age story that is a heartily welcome addition to the LGBTQ literature pantheon.
I LIKE TO READ
QUITE SIMPLY, THIS is a coming of age story but it is also so much more; it is a story of recovery and dealing with both past and present as set against the band Nirvana. . . . Hamburger beautifully captures the decade of the 90s and his characters who come of age then.
REVIEWS BY AMOS LASSEN
IF YOUR IDEA of Heaven is sitting down with a beautifully written book full of complex, compelling characters, then get ready. . . Nirvana Is Here! This is a drop-everything, stay-up-way-too-late, unputdownable novel written by an amazingly talented author. Funny, sexy, wise, and thought-provoking, Nirvana Is Here is a book that has it all, speaks to our times, and is an absolutely necessary read.
LESLÉA NEWMAN, author, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
A WONDER OF a book, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and always enormously honest about what it means to be young and in love. As a Jewish Gen-Xer, the novel reminded me exactly of who I once was—and all that I still want to be. Nirvana Is Here is a brilliant accomplishment.
LAUREN GRODSTEIN, author, Our Short History
A YEARNING, GENEROUS, coming-of-age journey. Captures both a decade, and those scary, vital moments we reveal who we are, inside. Aaron Hamburger’s prose is alive: what’s here is funny, painful, heartbreaking. If you miss (or missed) the 1990s, read this book.
BRANDO SKYHORSE, author, The Madonnas of Echo Park
LIKE EVERYTHING HAMBURGER writes, Nirvana Is Here is compulsively readable, charming, and suffused with deep humanity. The title is truth in advertising, folks: this novel is nirvana indeed.
ELISA ALBERT, author, After Birth
WITH RICH, REAL characters and an evocative sense of time and place, Aaron Hamburger movingly explores the ways our pasts accompany us into our future lives. Nirvana Is Here is tender, wise and deeply affecting.
TOVA MIRVIS, author, The Book of Separation
A TOUCHING, FINELY wrought portrait of secrets lying like buried ordinance beneath ordinary lives. The delicacy and observational wit of Aaron Hamburger’s prose are a marvel.
LOUIS BAYARD, author, Courting Mr. Lincoln
NIRVANA IS HERE
a novel
Aaron Hamburger
THREE ROOMS PRESS
New York, NY
Nirvana Is Here
BY Aaron Hamburger
© 2019 by Aaron Hamburger
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Portions of this novel appeared in a different form in the following anthologies, journals, and magazines: Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction, Zeek, Law and Disorder: Stories of Conflict and Crime, Sudden Flash Youth, Attitude, Carolina Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Zone 3, ImageOutWrite, and Jewish Education News
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. For permissions, please write to address below or email [email protected]. Any members of education institutions wishing to photocopy or electronically reproduce part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Three Rooms Press, 561 Hudson Street, #33, New York, NY 10014.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imaginations or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-941110-77-5 (trade paperback original)
ISBN 978-1-941110-78-2 (Epub)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962450
TRP-075
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
BISAC category code
FIC011000 Fiction / LGBT / Gay
FIC043000 Fiction / Coming of Age
FIC072000 Fiction / LGBT / Bisexual
FIC019000 Fiction / Literary
First edition
COVER DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION:
Victoria Black: www.thevictoriablack.com
BOOK DESIGN:
KG Design International: www.katgeorges.com
DISTRIBUTED BY:
PGW/Ingram: www.pgw.com
Three Rooms Press
New York, NY
This book is dedicated to my friend Avi Landes
CONTENTS
We Just Had to Hear You Say That