A darkly comic descent into Arkansas’s surreal criminal underworld through the eyes of a hapless, debt‑ridden hypochondriac
Couch People is a feverish, darkly comic novel that captures the anxious intensity of a world obsessed with wellness and control even as life keeps spinning into chaos. Prince, a debt-ridden drug dealer on probation, clings to vitamins and homeopathic rituals while stumbling through a surreal Arkansas underworld filled with criminal volatility and sudden violence.
As Prince fights to stay out of prison, recover his stolen money, and hold onto a fragile hope for love, he moves through a landscape populated by unforgettable misfits and bizarre dangers, including a system where snitches are cremated, turned into diamonds, and set into convicts’ teeth. Will Burns blends his satirical bite with unexpected tenderness, creating a narrative that prizes raw interiority and absurd humor over neat redemption. Couch People becomes a propulsive fever dream about love, loss, and the impossible effort to impose order on a world that refuses to make sense, inviting readers to embrace the beautiful mess of being alive without a manual, a map, or mercy.