Trapped in a web of her own creation, Skade Felsdottir, a gifted but deeply troubled photojournalist, returns to a place she swore never to go back to: the town where she grew up—a town that forever hosts her darkest traumas and secrets—to try and finish a book project. She reconnects, against her better judgment, with an old boyfriend, and meets a deeply traumatized and broken young woman, Kitten “Kit” Dyer: toweringly tall, awkward, achingly lonely, and savant-gifted as a puppet creator and puppeteer. As Skade and Kit work feverishly to get Skade’s book finished before her deadline, the two of them begin a parallel journey toward healing together, until a shocking revelation and a critical failure of judgment put Skade on a tipping point between life and oblivion. We are all drowning, and we are all rescuers.

Praise for American Still Life

With a mix of lyricism and grittiness, Jim Naremore tells the story of photojournalist Skade Felsdottir, whose past recklessness becomes the true focus of her documentary project to shoot roadside memorials. Recording what’s left of other lives soon leads Skade to reframe her own—on an alcohol-fueled journey of self-discovery and accelerating prose that carries us through the countryside. Until art and crime and friendship and love collide to form the montage that is American Still Life. 

—Tara Deal, author of Life/Insurance and That Night Alive     

Jim Naremore understands how hurt, insecurity, grief and guilt work on human beings. But the most important insight he reveals in his penetrating novel, “American Still Life,” is also the one that goes unacknowledged in words: that art saves people. Without philosophizing or even seeming to think much about why, Naremore’s troubled, slice-of-life characters naturally embrace creativity as a means of coping with their lives and expressing what they feel, but can’t say. That their work blooms from the darkest of soils makes Naremore’s story both harshly real and profoundly redemptive.    

—Carolyn Jack, author of The Changing of Keys     

In American Still Life, Jim Naremore skillfully examines the complexities of grief and loss. Through honest and sensitive storytelling, this novel delves into the ways we deal with–or are consumed by–life-changing adversity. With searing and lyrical prose, Naremore explores the aftermath of trauma and the ways we memorialize what we've lost. This is a thought-provoking and poignant read that is sure to leave a lasting impact on readers.   

—Beth Castrodale, author of The Inhabitants