TITLE 13, A Novel
by Michael A. Ferro
An Emerging Writers’ Network ‘Best Book of 2018‘
TITLE 13 is a Powell’s Staff Pick!
Selected in “Most Anticipated Small Press Books of 2018!” by BIG OTHER lit journal
Michael A. Ferro will be on Ann Arbor’s “Living Writers” (WCBN) radio program, hosted by U-M professor, T. Wetzel live on June 7th from 5-6pm (EDT)!
On June 8th, he’ll be on the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Litfest; A new interview with Michael Ferro on Michigan Radio NPR, the No. 1 NPR station in Michigan with a listener base of 500,000 people
Michael Ferro will be on Chicago Tribune Radio WGN, Sunday evening, February 18th for a live interview with Tribune columnist Rick Kogan, 9 p.m. Central (10 p.m. Eastern)
Michigan Quarterly Review interviews Michael Ferro
Michael A. Ferro will discuss his published work and the upcoming release, TITLE 13. The reading/Q&A will take place at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan on August 21
A timely investigation into the heart of a despotic government, TITLE 13 is a darkly comic cautionary tale of mental illness and unconventional love. The novel deftly blends satirical comedy aimed at the hot-button issues of modern society with the gut-wrenching reality of an intensely personal descent into addiction.
Young Heald Brown might be responsible for the loss of highly classified TITLE 13 government documents—and may have hopelessly lost himself as well. Since leaving his home in Detroit for Chicago during the recession, Heald teeters anxiously between despondency and bombastic sarcasm, striving to understand a country gone mad while clinging to his quixotic roots. Trying to deny the frightening course of his alcoholism, Heald struggles with his mounting paranoia, and his relationships with concerned family and his dying grandmother while juggling a budding office romance at the US government’s Chicago Regional Census Center. Attempting to combat the devastating effects of his addiction, Heald’s reality digresses into farcical absurdity, fevered isolation, and arcane psychological revelation, hilarious though redoubtable in nature. Meanwhile the TITLE 13 secrets remain at large, haunting each character and tangling the interwoven threads of Heald’s life, as the real question looms: Is it the TITLE 13 information that Heald has lost, or his sanity?
TITLE 13
by Michael Ferro
Release date: February 1, 2018
Genre: Suspense, Literary Fiction
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-941861-46-2
“A wonderful experience and a terribly compelling character study… sometimes fun, sometimes dark, and always knowledgeable about Chicago and about people. For a first-time novelist, (Ferro is) very knowing about the emotional territory of life. A very, very ambitious book.”
—Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune columnist and host of
“After Hours with Rick Kogan”
“Michael A. Ferro’s grand first novel churns fiction with a striking realism, and in his doing so, Ferro has successfully brought the Midwest back onto the literary map.”
“Even given the current political climate in Washington and its serious implications, it’s impossible for even the most concerned citizen not to find continuous insights, hilarious moments, and a resonating force within TITLE 13. Like a horrific accident, it draws spectators who might feel unwilling to observe, on one level; yet who are fascinated as events unfold, on another. It’s this ability to elicit that blend of concern, horror, and insight from his readers that keeps Michael A. Ferro’s story the perfect example of a individual and political catastrophe in the making, mirroring modern events from a delightfully fresh series of changing perspectives – especially from the perspective of the leaker himself, who is described as a ‘harbinger of doom’ and the ‘apogee of destruction’. The investigation will keep readers on their toes while Heald’s actions and reflections add a personal pivot point to cement events as they unfold. Readers who enjoy stories of political and individual blundering and irony should run, not walk, to TITLE 13: it’s a hard-hitting story wrapped in a unique voice that makes it nearly impossible to put down.”
“The missing pages are only vaguely described in TITLE 13, though their disappearance maintains a grip on his colleagues who are quick to absolve themselves of blame and point the finger at others…. The novel’s focus drifts further away from the lost TITLE 13 documents and instead focuses on Heald’s loss of self, a broken man living in a broken world at the hands of a broken government. Rich in dialogue and description with a delicate balance of foreboding and satirical humor, TITLE 13 serves to caution all of us in the trust of our hearts, our memories, and the supposed security guaranteed by government and technology in the hands of fallible citizens.”
“TITLE 13 is a darkly comic story for our time, a mélange of “Barton Fink,” “Office Space,” and Kafka, a novel that examines our alienation from one another and increasingly, our own country. Michael A. Ferro is a young writer on the rise.”
—Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and
The Hearts of Men
Goodreads Book Giveaway
“Affecting and inventively funny… Ferro’s work is an eclectic mélange.”
“With fierce wit and precision, Ferro paints a riveting portrait of a mind unraveling—ravaged by addiction, and rattled by the paranoia lodged in the beating heart of our government and seeping out into society. The gripping mystery driving TITLE 13, and the deeply troubled yet often hilarious psychology of the novel’s protagonist, are mesmerizing and brilliantly rendered. Ferro is a writer in possession of rare and unique talent—wise, agile, and bold.”
—Emma Smith-Stevens, author of The Australian
“The absurd excess of the modern security state is on full display in Heald Brown’s anxious, pummeled persona. TITLE 13 is a meticulous portrait of an illaudable bureaucrat that calls to mind the quixotic wit of Lethem and the comically punished protagonists of Stanley Elkin. A fun, impressive debut . . . Michael A. Ferro is a writer to watch.”
—Jarret Middleton, author of Darkansas
“TITLE 13 blends a hilariously absurd world of white-collar bureaucracy with the intense emotional realities of loss and longing. At the heart of this energetic novel and its darkly painted Chicago skyline is the throb of addiction. Ferro bravely puts his finger on that pulse and never shies away from its pain, from the lies we tell ourselves so that we can keep reaching toward a distorted sense of normalcy.”
—Dustin M. Hoffman, author of One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist
“Ferro has given us an insightful, tightly-crafted, and wickedly cutting novel that forces us all to think about the things we don’t want to think about. But it’s just such a funny story, too. The only times I stopped laughing were to panic and cry a little.”
—Brian Boone, Splitsider
“TITLE 13 proves that even when society fractures, meaning can be drawn from the chaos. Michael A. Ferro writes with heart, tenderness, and wit. An impressive debut!”
—Davy Rothbart, Found Magazine
“TITLE 13 is a dive into a depraved and yet likeable mind more than it is a mystery. While the missing documents are always a looming concern, the novel is more a depiction of a troubled mind than a troubled governmental agency. We follow Heald through the city of Chicago and to his home in Detroit, painting a picture of a slow-moving, Midwestern region mostly devoid of the technological annoyances that dog us today. The story is not a thriller in which there is a prominent and clean conclusion; it is more satisfying than that. Instead, we follow a government employee who doesn’t trust the agency and yet more importantly, doesn’t trust himself…. I would especially recommend TITLE 13 to those who enjoy a tormented narrator.”
“Picture some Kafkaesque bureaucratic fever dream set in quasi-contemporary Chicago and suburban Detroit. Then go drunkenly in search of something like love and something vaguely akin to those 28 conspiracy-inducing pages withheld from the original 9/11 Commission Report. Chase all this with a killer hangover worthy of Richard Yates and you’ll get a sense of Michael A. Ferro’s vivid and yearning debut novel, TITLE 13. But rest unassured. Any revelations you encounter — authoritatively written, funny as hell, wonderfully worthwhile — will be sadly, and suitably, short-lived. By turns earnest and ironic, also paranoiac, alcoholic, and elegiac, TITLE 13 is a critical excerpt pulled straight from the ailing heart of Middle America.”
—Jay Baron Nicorvo, author of The Standard Grand
“Michael Ferro writes about alcoholism in a way that mimics the disease. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, TITLE 13 is always a revelation: of our fears and anxieties, and the madness in which we might all get caught up if only a little something goes missing. Don’t misplace this impressive debut.”
—Stephan Eirik Clark, author of Sweetness #9
“Michael A. Ferro’s debut novel TITLE 13 is a stunning portrait of a man—Heald— trying to keep his personal and professional lives from unraveling. Like the Midwest city streets about which he writes, Ferro’s novel is tenacious, poignant, humorous, and always unpredictable. Sometimes fast-paced, other times deeply meditative, TITLE 13 is a timely literary thriller.”
—Keith Lesmeister, author of We Could’ve Been Happy Here
“If Joseph Heller had sat down to write And Then We Came To The End, he would’ve produced TITLE 13. Michael A. Ferro’s prose is fluid, his insights are sharp, and his humor is redeeming. This book is a required read.”
—Jamie Duclos-Yourdon, author of Froelich’s Ladder
“TITLE 13’s entertaining twists had me madly turning pages just to keep up. In his main character, Heald, Michael A. Ferro has drawn an alcoholic’s sneaky maneuverings and uneasy visions with enormous sympathy and refreshingly unironic humor. Heald’s quest to separate reality from imagination wraps him in a half-comic, half-tragic haze that challenges everything he thinks he knows, from his absurdly opaque workplace to the streets of Chicago to the familiar places Heald can never again call home. The novel’s break-out star is the Windy City. From a character whose medical condition causes him to superimpose faces on buildings to Heald’s unsteady view of his beloved city, no one in TITLE 13 lives in the same Chicago. Like Heald himself, TITLE 13 is both idealistic and despairing about the impossibility of reason and shared experience in a world where chaos is a strategy and secrecy a principle.”
—Laura Hulthen Thomas, author of States of Motion
“Ferro is a creative force to be reckoned with. TITLE 13 is a masterpiece of precision and vision, blended with a healthy dose of satire and wit. Echoes of Bradbury, Orwell and Huxley. As timely as it gets!”
—R.J. Fox, Author of Love & Vodka
Interviews
Crack the Spine literary journal
The Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)
Michael A. Ferro took part in Largehearted Boy’s “Book Notes” series about writing books and how music influences certain scenes and the story. There’s been many big name authors who have been a part of this series, like Jesmyn Ward, Stephen King, Lauren Groff, and Bret Easton Ellis, so he was really excited to be asked to participate!
About the Author
Born and bred in Detroit, Michael A. Ferro holds a degree in creative writing from Michigan State University. He has received an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train for their New Writers Award and won the Jim Cash Creative Writing Award for Fiction in 2008. TITLE 13 is his debut novel. Michael’s fiction and essays have been featured in numerous online and print publications. Michael has lived, worked, and written throughout the Midwest, currently as a Sportswriter and a Features Writer for CBS Detroit. In 2014, Michael became a national music and sports columnist for AXS. He currently resides in rural Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Additional information and writing can be found at: www.michaelaferro.com and @MichaelFerro
