Open When Alone

Tender, funny, exuberant, and packing an emotional wallop, Open When Alone is the story of a man forced to ask himself, “Am I the person I thought I was?” on the night of his twentieth wedding anniversary.

“Reading Robert Travieso is like free-falling from a plane. . . . His voice’s momentum will seize you, his story’s fierce energy will levitate you, and his piercing details will leave you as poked full of holes as a sieve.” —Susan Choi, author of Flashlight

“Travieso is one of the funniest, most original writers I know. I cant wait for the rest of the world to discover his brilliant mind.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation

As Dean, an easygoing English teacher, dons a suit and prepares to join the party downstairs celebrating twenty years with his wife, Jane, he finds a note in the toe of his dress shoe labelled “open when alone” that upends his life as he knew it. What Dean thought was a cherished piece of the couple’s history turns out to have been quite different for Jane.

Both dumbfounded and trepidatious about to how to proceed, Dean conducts a thorough moral inventory, mercilessly examining the most pivotal moments with each of the important women in his life: his mother, a childhood sidekick, a high school hookup, his college girlfriend, and, of course, Jane. As Dean attempts to excavate truth from the chaos of a young man’s memory — What else did he get wrong? — he must also reckon with his role in the present, and whether he is the right person to step in when one of his students finds herself in perilous waters.

Immersive, shockingly funny, and blisteringly honest, Open When Alone is an explosive debut, reminiscent of Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation but from a husband’s perspective. Travieso has written a stunning portrait of a man in crisis and an unforgettable interrogation of the moments that make a whole life.