By turns hilarious & bittersweet, Andy Mozina’s winning debut novel introduces a charming new hero for our times: a dysfunctional, divorced family man whose passion for life comes straight from the harp.Matthew Grzbc is a talented musician who plays the concert harp. He is a divorced dad who lives in Chicago, has a sexy girlfriend, & has a major, potentially life-changing audition with an orchestra on the horizon. At least that’s how he appears on paper. But take a closer look & a very different man starts to emerge: an obsessive, self-sabotaging Midwesterner, fumbling through his relationship with his curiously neurotic six-year-old daughter & headed for destruction in his romantic life by grasping at any remotely affectionate warm body, including that of his ex-wife. Instead of playing to sold-out concert halls, he spends his days plucking out “Send in the Clowns” at hotel brunches, & his weekends serenading the captive audience at the local hospice.When his father dies unexpectedly (while listening to a meditation tape), Matt’s life begins to come untethered. In quick succession his ex-wife gets engaged, his girlfriend begins to pull away, & his daughter starts acting out. With his audition rapidly approaching, Matt is paralyzed by panic—why can’t he hold it together & follow his dream? And what does that even mean, if you’re not sure what it is you really want?Funny, poignant, & thoroughly engaging, Contrary Motion is a journey deep inside a male mind as it searches—desperately—for a way to balance life, love, & a harp.°°°Andy Mozina is a professor of English at Kalamazoo College & the author of the short story collections The Women Were Leaving the Men, which won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, & Quality Snacks, which was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Prize. His fiction has also appeared in numerous magazines, including Tin House & McSweeney’s.
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