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The Narcissism of Small Differences

Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek have been a couple for a long time, with all the requisite lulls and temptations, yet they remain unmarried and without children, contrary to their Midwestern values (and parents’ wishes). Now on the cusp of forty, they are both working at jobs that they’re not even sure they believe in anymore, but with significantly varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering—both in limbo, caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development.

Set against the backdrop of bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, a once-great American city now in transition, part decaying and part striving to be reborn, The Narcissism of Small Differences  is the story of an aging creative class, doomed to ask the questions: Is it possible to outgrow irony? Does not having children make you one? Is there even such a thing as selling out anymore?

More than a comedy of manners, The Narcissism of Small Differences  is a comedy of compromise: the financial compromises we make to feed ourselves; the moral compromises that justify our questionable actions; the everyday compromises we all make just to survive in the world. Yet it’s also about the consequences of those compromises— and the people we become because of them—in our quest for a life that is our own and no one else’s.

“The Narcissism of Small Differences is one of [Zadoorian’s] best. He has become an essential chronicler of the life in Detroit at the beginning of our century.”
—Stateside, Michigan Public Radio

#1 Bestseller (Fiction/Paperback) at Book Soup!

One of Detour Detroit‘s 25 Notable Detroit and Michigan Books from 2020!

“This comedy features characters who are so real that you’ll be questioning whether you met them in another life.”
—Hour Detroit, included in 9 Beach Reads with Michigan Connections

“Like Zadoorian’s earlier novels—The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, The Leisure Seeker and Beautiful Music—this new novel brims with wit, passion and soul.”
—The Millions, one of The Millions’ Most Anticipated Books of 2020

“If the very idea of irony were to die during the coronavirus, how would one bury it? A new book by Ferndale writer Michael Zadoorian might provide an answer.”
—Lansing City Pulse

“A quirky, original novel . . . Zadoorian deftly captures the flavor and eccentricities of life in Detroit.”
—Lansing State Journal

“The Narcissism of Small Differences by Michael Zadoorian is about two people on the cusp of their forties, but it’s also about our life choices, how we compare those choices to others, and why we follow a particular path in life, whether it’s based on convenience or conviction.”
—I’ve Read This

Item Special Note

About The Author

MICHAEL ZADOORIAN is the critically praised author of Beautiful Music, as well as The Leisure Seeker—the basis for the 2018 Sony Pictures Classics film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. Zadoorian is a recipient of a Kresge Artist Fellowship in the Literary Arts, the Columbia University Anahid Literary Award, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, the GLIBA Great Lakes Great Reads award, and a Michigan Notable Book Award. His other books are Second Hand: A Novel, and the story collection The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit. His work has appeared in the Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, American Short Fiction, Witness, Great Lakes Review, North American Review, Detroit Noir, and the Huffington Post. A lifelong resident of the Detroit area, he lives with his wife in a 1937 bungalow filled with cats and objects that used to be in the houses of other people. His latest novel is The Narcissism of Small Differences.

About Akashic Books
Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers.

Praise for Akashic Books
“As many in publishing struggle to find ways to improve on an increasingly outdated business model, independents such as Akashic—which are more nimble and less risk-averse than major publishing houses—are innovators to watch.”
—LOS ANGELES TIMES

“It’s heartening that even as the dinosaurs of publishing are lurching toward extinction, nimble independent publishers like Akashic are producing high-quality, innovative content.”
—PORTLAND MERCURY

“Akashic fits in that very slight category of publishers, growing slimmer every day, whose colophon is a recommendation on its own.”
—TORONTO STAR

“Akashic is one of the most impressive of the newer small presses, in part because of editing and production values that rival and perhaps surpass the big houses. We’re grateful to them . . .”
—DENVER POST

“Akashic serves as a prime example of the diversity that marks the small press movement.”
—MYSTERY SCENE

“What’s great about Akashic is its sense of adventure and its smart eclecticism . . . Anything carrying the logo comes with the guarantee that it’s worth checking out.”
—HARTFORD COURANT

“An excellent small press.”
—IN THESE TIMES

“[Akashic] fully conveys the charms and possibilities of small press publishing . . . placing a priority on the quality of the books, rather than the possible marketing opportunities they offer.”
—POETS & WRITERS

“Akashic is the brainchild of the charismatic Johnny Temple, the bassist of the rock group Girls Against Boys. Temple set up Akashic to give attention to literary works that are ignored, as well as to prove that publishers don’t have to exploit their writers.”
—IUNIVERSE.COM