Odyssey of an Octopus Junkie: A Dysfunctional Love Story

This 85,000 word literary novel that tells the ill-fated and quixotic love story of Phoenix Shannon, tormented drug addict and talented artist, and Hannah Lieberman, the pathologically co-dependent daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Hannah is drawn to Phoenix’s pathos and compelled to repeat her lifelong pattern of trying to rescue the terminally wounded. But Hannah underestimates the baffling and ruthless power of addiction, as well as her own destructive desire to be needed. After a year of nearly relentless insanity and devastation, Hannah's world is collapsing around her. When personal tragedy strikes Hannah's family, Phoenix, Hannah, and her recently widowed father, Thomas, embark on a cross-country road trip in a quest to liberate a giant octopus, who may be psychically pleading with Hannah to free him, or may simply be the fanciful creation of a desperate psyche. When events make it impossible for Hannah to continue denying how toxic Phoenix is for her, she does her best to let him go, while Phoenix struggles to stay sober and redeem himself. But both of their addictions are powerful, and it is unclear whether either will ever be able to kick the habit.