The Verificationist: A Novel

A psychoanalyst detaches from reality in front of his colleagues at an all-night pancake restaurant―an absurd, uproarious novel from the award-winning author of The Hundred Brothers and My Eliot.

“Antrim does a beautiful job. . . . [Full] of intellection, rude humor, grief, and longing.”―The New York Times

If only Tom could keep himself from starting a food fight with the other teaching psychoanalysts of the Krakower Institute at the biyearly midnight pancake supper at Pancake House and Bar.

But unfortunately, that’s beyond him, and when his colleague wraps him in a bear hug to put a stop to the mayhem, Tom slips into an out-of-body experience. Is he hallucinating? Is this real? And most important, will he be able to emerge from this night a man, leave behind his childish inclinations, start a family even?

Antrim takes on psychoanalysis and its preoccupations (lust and immaturity); work and family; the real and the surreal. What surfaces is a wild, dreamlike, funny excursion through one man’s psyche, exposing the emotional core at the center of us all.