Description:

“Believe the hype. I killed myself.” Having destroyed his life, the suicidal T. Rimberg strikes out on a journey through history and geography. From Minneapolis to Europe to a fiery accident near Green Bay, he searches for a father who is likely dead, digs for meaning where he’s sure there is none, fires off suicide letters to family, celebrities, presidents, and football stars, and lands in a hospital bed across from a priest who believes that Rimberg has caused a miracle. This funny, moving novel asks us to consider the nature of second chances and the unexpected form that grace sometimes takes. ** ### From Publishers Weekly This debut bears an uncomfortable resemblance to *Everything Is Illuminated*, both in plot—a Jewish American travels through Europe, gleaning secrets about his family and the Holocaust—as well as tone—comic to make the mystical, sentimental stuff go down—but Herbach largely manages to pull out something worthwhile. The book presents, via letters and suicide notes (compiled by a Green Bay, Wis., priest who thinks the narrator may have been involved in a miracle), the odd case of T. Rimberg, a skittish part-Jew who grew up underachieving in a small Midwestern town. T. has lost his wife, kids and girlfriend, but when a large inheritance check arrives from his long-lost Holocaust survivor father's estate, T. undertakes a quixotic voyage to Europe to... what? Find the truth about his dad? Kill himself? And what to make of his nightmares? A more secure T. emerges, however, as he discovers startling things about his father, the meaning behind his strange dreams and, on a Wisconsin highway, his own power to act heroically. While the tenor of the novel is comedic, Herbach infuses T.'s story with some serious inquiry into faith, inheritance and what makes a good life. *(Apr.)* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### Review “*The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg* is a darkly comic, extraordinary peek into the delicate mind of a suicidal no-hoper. T. Rimberg is a superbly crafted character: death obsessed and soulful, resentful and ashamed, chivalrous and scruffy. In his brilliant debut novel, Geoff Herbach parks good and evil side-by-side in the sandbox and, with masterful confidence, allows them to figure things out for themselves.” –Tish Cohen, author of *Town House* “I read *The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg* and I was gob-smacked. It’s a tasty dark treat, inspiring the reader to suck on every last hilarious morsel.” –Heather McElhatton, author of *Pretty Little Mistakes* “*The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg* is a wonderful trifecta–funny, mysterious, and full-hearted. From a farewell letter written to Aunt Jemima to a quiet moment in a Polish cemetery, I laughed and ached alongside T. Rimberg all the way through his fantastic journey.” –Brian Leung, author of *Lost Men*