The War for Gloria

The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish, published by Serpent’s Tail Limited on May 26, 2022, is a fiction novel that explores the complexities of family dynamics through the eyes of a young protagonist. At 15 years old, Corey Goltz faces the challenges of caring for his mother, Gloria, who has been diagnosed with ALS. Estranged from his father, Corey is determined to fulfill the role of protector, but his resolve is tested when his father, Leonard, re-enters their lives, bringing with him a tumultuous influence that complicates Corey’s understanding of love, duty, and power.
Readers will find a narrative that delves into themes of responsibility and the harsh realities of familial relationships. As Corey navigates his mother’s illness and his father’s troubling presence, he confronts difficult truths about honor and the nature of devotion. Set in a small Massachusetts town during the early 2000s, the story juxtaposes the working-class struggles with the more privileged worlds of Boston and Cambridge. The War for Gloria presents a poignant exploration of a young man’s journey toward adulthood, as he grapples with the need to protect his mother while confronting the darker aspects of his father’s character. This edition spans 448 pages and is presented in English.
Official synopsis Publisher
Corey Goltz is 15 years old when his mother, Gloria, is diagnosed with ALS. Estranged from his father, and increasingly responsible for meeting both his mother’s needs and his own, Corey is determined to be the hero Gloria needs – at any cost. But when his father Leonard re-enters the picture, Corey’s beliefs – about honour and love, duty and devotion and the uses and misuses of power – are sorely tested. Charismatic and cruel, Leonard is a man of outsize influence and dubious moral character, a man whose neglect of his wife and son amounts to a kind of barbarism. The closer Corey gets to understanding his father’s role in their family, the closer he comes to unmasking a violence that is beyond even his worst imaginings. Set against the backdrop of a small town in Massachusetts in the early 2000s, where the working class world collides with the professional and academic worlds of nearby Boston and Cambridge, The War For Gloria tells the story of a young man straddling childhood and adulthood, whose yearning to protect his mother requires him to dismantle the myth of – and possibly destroy – his father.
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