In this withering satire of American life, Marshall and Joyce are conducting a scorched-earth divorce campaign against each other. On the grim day when New York City is overcome with grief and shock, each thinks the other is dead, and each is visited by an intense, secret, guilty satisfaction. Both survive only to continue their fighting.

A National Book Award Finalist

"The best novel yet about 9/11.... A brilliant new comedy of manners, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country is about the way a conflict takes on a logic and momentum of its own." --Salon

"Savagely hilarious." --Elle

Joyce and Marshall each think the other is killed on September 11--and must swallow their disappointment when the other arrives home. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, and foreign wars, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time.

In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our most private illusions.