Praise for Problems

“Jade Sharma is the appalling, hilarious love child of Denis Johnson and Maggie Estep, and Problems is as unrepentant and transgressive a novel as they come. Every coming of age story except this one is a lie.” —Elisa Albert, author of After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, and Why This Night Is Different

 “Searing. Brutal. Sublime. Hysterical. Terrifying. Exacting. Essential. Indelible. Unforgettable.”—Dale Peck, author of Hatchet Jobs and Visions and Revisions

“The self-degrading, self-knowing narrator of Jade Sharma’s Problems dares to recount her beyond messy life in clean, lucid—and often funny—prose. She’d never be so glib as to call herself a survivor, but even at this dark novel’s darkest moments her voice itself makes the case for her resilience and her humanity.”—David Gates, author of Jernigan and A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me

“[A]n uncompromising and unforgettable depiction of the corrosive loop of addiction. . . . Sharma has crafted a momentous force that never flags and feels painfully honest.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Hard to read and hard to put down.”  — Publishers Weekly, Best Summer Books 2016

“The novel is written so well that the relentless and destructive rhythm of heroin abuse seems calming, metaphysical, and occasionally even funny.Sharma’s descriptions are vivid and sage . . . . lulling readers into a similarly opiate state to which they will readily succumb and from which, like the protagonist, it will take some time to recover. An absorbing novel carried by a seemingly hopeless protagonist you will want to befriend and save.” — Kirkus

“Unsettling, aware, self-conscious, vivid, honest, gorgeous – Problems does it all, all while eschewing traditional expectations of story, plot, and character.” — Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Bold and honest, Problems is a fresh look at recovery, redemption, and one woman’s increasing nest of problems.”  — Buzzfeed, 18 Incredible New Books You Need To Read This Summer

“The problem with Jade Sharma’s novel, Problems, is that it ends. The narrator, Maya, is a hot mess with zero percent of her shit together, and yet as I got to know her through the Sharma’s inventive narrative voice, I saw her as—or perhaps wanted her to be—my friend  . . . . Problems doesn’t read as a shallow portrayal or sensational narrative of addiction. It’s real. . . . Sharma doesn’t minimize the problems a drug addict can face. Instead, she turns the social perception of addicts as totally fucked-up and irredeemable losers into a story of how we respond to our perplexing problems. ” — The Rumpus