This Is It: A Novel in Stories

＂Sexuality, class, family, death: these grand themes are given a rich and deep exploration in This Is It, a moving and provocative debut novel ... Fox’s depictions of major life transitions are sensitive and wise; this is riveting reading.＂ -- Quill & Quire, starred reviewGiovanni Zappacosta-O’Hara suspects that there’s more to his family’s legacy than he’s been told. His parents recount the history in devastating, scandalous and rollicking stories, while Gio and his boyfriend joke that there must be lies woven into the details. When his boyfriend is struck with cancer, the laughter stops. Gio can’t bear watching the disease eat away his life, his sanity and the person he loves.
Full of shame, Gio flees to New York, using his family history as a feeble excuse -- he’s going to get to the bottom of it. What happens next forces Gio to confront his cowardice and find a different motivation for his book: redemption. As he retells the stories, he discovers family secrets that make him question his identity. The hilarious and heartfelt characters he finds along the way give him surprising chances to get over himself -- but will he take them?＂

Matthew Fox is the author of the story collection Cities of Weather. He grew up in Ontario, before moving to Montreal, London and New York, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. His work has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, Big Fiction, Toronto Life and Maisonneuve. He currently lives in Berlin.