Spanning four years at the University of Chicago, this electrifying debut follows four friends who are drawn into a high-stakes campus game, only to find themselves the unwitting architects of a shocking tragedy.
'Natalie Rose Richardson arrives with a vibrant, irreverent, singular voice' Jonathan Safran Foer
As astonishing and piercing a debut as I've ever read.
This Is An Actual Tragedy is a magnificent meditation on friendship and a harrowing descent into the American berserk. Richardson writes like books could still save us - perhaps because this one might' Junot Díaz
Fifty-five students gather to stage a performance.
Some hope to make a statement. Others come for fun to play the game.
Some carry supplies; wood and lighter fluid. Others wear tragic mouths and thousand-yard stares.
They do not all agree on what it means. But all come in character; fully committed to the bit.
When officers arrive at the scene, at first the students will cheer.
When the shot is fired, four friends look up, at the sky.
They are expecting to see a firework.
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Darwin Harrington, a physics geek, is about to meet the friends who will split and rearrange the atomic bonds of his life. And he's about to meet the most notorious - and nerdiest - secret society at the University of Chicago, centred around an elaborate ritual called Scav, a scavenger hunt that promises winners a fast-track ticket to society's most elite circles. By fourth year, Darwin's obsession drags all his friends into the game. Nat, an aspiring writer, joins for the story; Steph, the campus It Girl, joins for the rewards; Jordan, the golden boy and basketball all-star, joins to find redemption.
Only three of the friends will survive. Some will call what happens an accident. Others will call it fate. All will call it a tragedy.
