David Tromblay is a writer whose work is shaped by his decade-long military service and his academic pursuits in creative writing. His thoughtful essays and short stories delve into diverse themes, often exploring identity and experience through a distinctive narrative voice. His writing has been recognized in numerous literary journals, reflecting a growing presence in contemporary American letters. His forthcoming memoir promises a deeper exploration of his personal journey and reflections.
The not-too-distant future. The global population reaches ten billion, leaving the planet at its breaking point. The population is being thinned; its people, their professions, and their health are reclassified: Essential or Nonessential.Jonathan Shaddox works as a medical courier for a healthcare giant, navigating the crumbling remains of what had been great American cities.This was once a work of fiction.
A hypnotic, brutal, and unstoppable coming-of-age story from within the aftershocks set off by the American Indian boarding schools, fanned by the flames of nearly fifteen years of service in the Armed Forces, exposing a series of inescapable prisons and the invisible scars of attempted erasure.When he learns his father is dying, David Tromblay ponders what will become of the monster’s legacy and picks up a pen to set the story straight. In sharp and unflinching prose, he recounts his childhood bouncing between his father, who wrestles with anger, alcoholism, and a traumatic brain injury; his grandmother, who survived Indian boarding schools but mistook the corporal punishment she endured for proper child-rearing; and his mother, a part-time waitress, dancer, and locksmith, who hides from David’s father in church basements and the folded-down back seat of her car until winter forces her to abandon her son on his grandmother’s doorstep. For twelve years, he is beaten, burned, humiliated, locked in closets, lied to, molested, seen and not heard, until his talent for brutal violence meets and exceeds his father’s, granting him an escape.Years later, David confronts the compounded traumas of his childhood, searching for the domino that fell and forced his family into the cycle of brutality and denial of their own identity.