After growing up with an alcoholic mother and an intermittent stepfather, Alex pines for connection, even as he sabotages his life with substances, and substitutes one failed relationship for the next. Shuffling from troubled home to chaotic institution, he narrates his strange search through Chicago’s gritty gutters and lonely lakefront spaces with a voice that is clear, honest—and unforgettable.

Anthony Koranda’s debut Broken Bottles is earning comparisons to Denis Johnson and Nelson Algren. It’s a searing work destined for a space among the classics of Chicago literature—a story both strange and familiar about one person’s path through the chaos of youth, in a quest for acceptance and hope.

"Anthony Koranda's Broken Bottles is a literary debut of the highest order. With stunning prose and an array of complicated characters, this emotionally-resonant novel in stories has the poetry and realism of Nelson Algren with the haunting imagery and formal invention of Denis Johnson. An instant classic."
– Joe Meno, author, Between Everything and Nothing

“Broken Bottles is an unmistakable heir to Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son. There's a brutal poetry to these pages, and Alex, our guide to the Chicago underworld, approaches the other humans in his path with a humility that is almost impossible to find in books (or life, for that matter). As he bounces from halfway houses to hectic bedrooms, in and out of the arms of his first love, Javier, and eventually into a relationship with a woman whose family harbors the same kind of violence he grew up with, he finds that survival is a lot easier than letting yourself be loved. If you need a little help finding your way back to being grateful for the chaos and warmth of other humans, this book will be your guide.”
– Sarah Smith, author, Marilou Is Everywhere

“Broken Bottles is a hypnotizing bildungsroman set on sordid stages, violent and disturbing but gently told. Even in its most horrific moments every sentence brims with empathy. This is the journey of a young man groping for something—anything that will make his life make sense. He careens through Chicago's streets between stints in government facilities, struggling with addiction, haunted by abandonment, searching for that one human connection that might save him. Koranda's subtly brilliant storytelling ensures that the reader will not give up on his protagonist, even when it seems like he might have given up on himself.”
– Don DeGrazia, author, American Skin