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A Tiny Upward Shove Audiobook
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Publisher Description
This “addictive and headlong” (Lauren Groff) debut novel traces the too-short life of a woman cast out by society and transformed by death into an agent of justice—or mercy.
“My grandmother, sitting at her doily-covered table, marmalade on her cheek, explained that the aswang is all the evil bad things that a town or a society would want to deny—eventually it has to come out, has to be personified into something or the truth will reveal itself.”
Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead.
Instead, in the course of a moment, she is transformed into the stuff of myth, the stuff of her grandmother’s old Filipino stories—an aswang. She spent her life on the margins, knowing very little about her own life, let alone the lives of others; she was shot like a pinball through a childhood of loss, a veteran of Child Protective Services and a survivor, but always reacting, watching from a distance. Death brings her into the hearts and minds of those she has known—even her killer—as she is able to access their memories and to see anew the meaning of her own. In the course of this story she traces back through her life, finally able to see what led these lost souls to this crushingly inevitable conclusion.
In A Tiny Upward Shove, the debut novelist Melissa Chadburn charts the heartbreaking journeys of two of society’s cast-offs as they find their way to each other and their roles as criminal and victim. What does it mean to be on the brink? When are those moments that change not only our lives but our very selves? And to what lengths will we go for mercy?
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“In its verve, vibrancy, and sheer reckless energy, Chadburn’s writing recalls a number of wonders: Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, say, or Kincaid’s At the Bottom of the River. Chadburn’s vision, however, her intelligence and empathy, are entirely her own.”
— Matthew Specktor, author of American Dream Machine
Quotes
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“Melissa Chadburn writes with tenderness and grit, and A Tiny Upward Shove is a beautiful and brave novel about powerlessness, longing, and that universal, unavoidable desire to be loved. Let this book happen to you.”
— Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author -
“Brave, fierce, and smart, A Tiny Upward Shove announces an exciting new voice in fiction.”
— Rob Spillman, author of All Tomorrow’s Parties -
“Melissa Chadburn gives words to a life’s sorrow, breathing into a life’s pain what novels provide—detailed and observant empathy.”
— Gina Apostol, author of Gun Dealers’ Daughter -
“Chadburn leans into the center of a bad dream. Go with her. Keep going.”
— Sia -
“A Tiny Upward Shove is gloriously voiced, the kind of addictive and headlong novel that makes reading into a wild bronco ride. Melissa Chadburn has it, the spark; her first novel is strange and tender and not to be missed.”
— Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author -
“Every line carries music, emotional weight, philosophical insight, and punk rock glory.”
— Amber Dermont, New York Times bestselling author -
“A novel that grabs your attention and won’t let it go—fueled by a wild, jagged energy and an exuberant mixing of cultures and a narrator whose frank, poignant voice will keep echoing in your head.”
— Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Likes -
“An engrossingly raw but tenderly vulnerable voice. Chadburn brings to vivid life a character stained by cruelty, but who has the last word.”
— Lisa Ling, coauthor of Somewhere Inside -
“A fiercely original, brave writer. Chadburn finds the lyrical and the deeply human in seemingly dark and impenetrable landscapes.”
— Héctor Tobar, New York Times bestselling author -
“A writer who can make the language sing and bleed.”
— Steve Almond, New York Times bestselling author -
“A mesmerizing work in which beauty and ugliness and realism and mythology coexist. Chadburn is an emerging literary force.”
— Jaquira Díaz, author of Ordinary Girls -
“Gorgeous, wrecking. I could not look away. Her telling held me captive and reminded me that art is its own kind of mercy.”
— Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood -
“A knife pressed to the throat of secrecy. There is no other debut novelist whose work I’m more excited to share with everyone in the world.”
— Kyle Minor, author of Praying Drunk -
“An astonishing story about what makes us human and bound to each other. More books should be written like this: fiercely, without apology, and with devastating honesty.”
— Dana Johnson, author of Elsewhere, California -
“An extraordinary book with surprising turns and fierce momentum. This book is alive, and you can feel its heart beating; when you read its pages, I promise you will feel its life rush through you.”
— Jennifer Percy, author of Demon Camp
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About Melissa Chadburn
Melissa Chadburn’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Paris Review Daily, The Best American Food Writing, and many other publications. Her extensive reporting on the child welfare system appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Chadburn is a worker lover and through her own labor and literary citizenship strives to upend economic violence. Her mother taught her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and she’s basically been doing that ever since. She is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Southern California and lives in greater Los Angeles.
About Kelsey Navarro
Kelsey Navarro Foster grew up in Las Vegas with a background in film, singing, and acting. In her spare time, she reads voraciously and enjoys listening to a good podcast or audiobook.