The Lunatic

For fans of Patrick Dewitt and Henry David Thoreau comes The Lunatic--the debut literary novel from the author of two previous non-fiction books, Michelle B. Slater, PhD.

Set during the height of the Occupy Movement of 2011, 28-year-old Nell Harding starts an experiment--alongside her faithful animal companion Argos--with the goal of crafting a different kind of life for herself. Despite Nell being a rare books librarian, she’s not immune to the lures of digital distraction, and she wonders if it’s possible to create a meaningful life off the seductive digital grid.

Using herself as a test subject, Nell unplugs to see what will happen, leaving New York City to return to the Berkshire Hills of her childhood. What she finds is a life far more challenging, surprising, and--ultimately--rewarding than she could have possibly envisioned.

Drawing from Slater’s background as a scholar of comparative literature and lover of conservationism, the novel engages with the work of poets, novelists, and philosophers, including Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Emerson, Musil, Broch, and more. Nature lovers and modern-day philosophers won’t be able to resist the tempting question--is absorption possible in the age of distraction?

Michelle Slater is a scholar of comparative literature and president of the educational nonprofit Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities in Connecticut. She holds a Ph.D. in French literature from Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Starving to Heal in Siberia, Soulmate Dog, and The Lunatic (forthcoming from Guernica Editions, 2025).