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The Throwback Special is a moving and comic tale filled with pitch-perfect observations about manhood, marriage, middle age and the rituals we all enact as part of being alive.

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With wit and great empathy, Chris Bachelder introduces us to Charles, a psychologist whose expertise is in high demand; George, a garrulous public librarian; Fat Michael, envied and despised by the others for being exquisitely fit; Jeff, a recently divorced man who has become a theorist of marriage and many more. Over the course of a weekend, the men reveal their secret hopes, fears and passions as they choose roles, spend a long night of the soul preparing for the play and finally enact their bizarre ritual for what may be the last time. Along the way, mishaps, misunderstandings and grievances pile up, and the comforting traditions holding the group together threaten to give way. The Throwback Special is a moving and comic tale filled with pitch-perfect observations about manhood, marriage, middle age and the rituals we all enact as part of being alive.

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Chris Bachelder is the author of Bear v. Shark, U.S.! and Abbott Awaits. His fiction and essays have appeared in McSweeney´s, The Believer and the Paris Review. He teaches at the University of Cincinnati.

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