The Sadness

Ever since her mom died, Kelly just can’t get her shit together. Broke and homeless at thirty, she returns to her hometown of Portland, Maine, hoping to track down her estranged but well-off father--who she plans on asking for money. But her twin brother, Max, is living in their deceased mother's home, and if anyone's more screwed up than Kelly, it's disheveled, misanthropic Max.

Max has just one obsession: film. In particular, his own unfinished project from a decade earlier, which he believes is a masterpiece in the making. He dreams of completing it, but there’s a major problem: Evelyn, his actress and muse, has recently disappeared. After seeing her name acknowledged in the credits of Land Without Water, a famous cult film shot in their hometown and the only film made by the notoriously reclusive Darren Stanford, Max thinks Evelyn's disappearance has something to do with the film, and possibly Stanford himself.

Kelly's arrival upsets Max's plans for finding Evelyn, even as the town gears up for its 'Day Without Water' festival, an annual celebration of the cult classic. Enter Penelope Hayward, the star ofLand Without Water and Kelly's high school best friend, who was catapulted to fame after the film's release. Now a major Hollywood star, Penelope arrives in Portland as the festival's guest of honor.

As Max's obsession with his leading lady leads to increasingly absurd albeit self-destructive high jinks, Kelly is compelled to help her brother, who has never recovered from their mother's death and harbors decades old resentments for his sister. In a desperate bid to both fix things with her brother and perhaps jump start her stalled-out life, Kelly reconnects with her old best friend. Suddenly, the twins enter the inner circle of elite Hollywood - which might just be their best shot at finding Evelyn, and, hopefully, a little bit of redemption.

Benjamin Rybeck is the marketing director at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, TX. He received an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona. His work has appeared inKirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, The Nervous Breakdown, and elsewhere.The Sadness is his first novel. He lives in Houston, TX.