Cowards: A Novel

Dopers, dropouts, scenesters, and hipsters shark Seattle in search of the next big thing. Or they refuse to search and opt to slide down the dark ladder. No bottom there. No traps. No dead end. There heroin will tell you you're brilliant, you're in touch, you're so, so inside. The addict's path mimics the shape of the worm Ouroboros: its tail forever in its mouth and he ends up where he began. It's the bus you can't get off.

Mitchell Slaughter, perceptive but stoned, lures us step by step i...