Moral Delirium - Paperback

by Michael J. Atwood (Author)

In his fifth collection of eight riveting new stories, Michael J. Atwood explores the moral complexities of human nature through narratives steeped in ambition, obsession, love, betrayal, and disillusionment. From the shadowed streets of London to quiet towns in rural Massachusetts, from the sun-soaked sprawl of Los Angeles to the historic avenues of Boston, these richly atmospheric tales expose the hidden desires and dark truths that shape-and often haunt-the lives of unforgettable characters.

A college student wrestles with his father's alcoholism and his parents' divorce while pursuing his first love. A professor begins a dangerous relationship with a graduate student, spiraling into addiction and ruin. In London, an American expatriate is forced to face his dark criminal past when a ghost from his past appears, threatening the fragile family life he's built. A mother discovers her son's psychic abilities may solve the decades-old disappearance of a 21-year-old woman. A failed screenwriter turned adjunct professor travels from Boston to L.A. for an MFA reunion, only to be recruited by a CIA operative-and faced with a choice between ambition and conscience. In a Beacon Hill brownstone of the near future, smart technology reveals infidelity and buried secrets, unraveling a marriage and a young couple's sense of reality. In the stillness of rural Massachusetts, a grieving man becomes entangled with a reclusive neighbor harboring a dark and dangerous secret. And a young Boston teacher loses his first love, only to discover a new love-but years later, a heartbreaking revelation.

Inspired by James Joyce's twin themes of paralysis and delirium, and drawing on the emotional candor of Dubliners, Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and the moral bankruptcy found in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Atwood brings his literary influences into sharp contemporary focus. His love of mystery, suspense, and noir infuses these stories with psychological depth and a haunting sense of inevitability.

Blending psychological acuity with taut, evocative storytelling, Moral Delirium is a masterful examination of fate, identity, and the moral choices that define us. Atwood's characters are deeply flawed yet achingly human-torn between desire and consequence, truth and delusion. For readers of literary noir and provocative fiction, these stories offer a haunting exploration of the fine and fragile line between right and wrong.