Alameda

Alameda is a layered, unconventional story of potential love, told through the eyes of a college student named Kleytjen, who is immersive in nature and places the reader into his headspace. It begins on a night when he is a week away from commencement, and ends the following morning, but moves through several years in conversation. In addition to wondering about love, it’s also about coming to terms with growing up, via recounting adventures with nuanced characters. This cast includes an alluring friend and surfer Amie, a carefree but thoughtful counterpoint Palmer who has a penchant for stealing, and Kleytjen’s once-roommate Sterling whose approach to the last year was to seemingly disappear. My aim was for the book to be a spontaneous yet inescapable adventure in which a young person emerges into a new understanding of himself, like a Holden but with change over time, having navigated the intricate and humorous paths of interconnected relationships.