Recovering Maurice

by Martin Zelder

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Pub Date Sep 02 2025 | Archive Date Oct 02 2025

Atmosphere Press

Literary Fiction

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Description

Recovering Maurice follows rumpled sixtyish professor Maurice, who believes he has a good life—wife, home, job—until a chance encounter with a mysterious woman reading a book about trauma. From that moment, Maurice begins to examine the trauma that has shaped his life—his brother Emil’s devastating childhood neurological damage, his own developmental struggles, his professional and personal failings, and even his lifelong frustration with people’s persistent mispronunciation of his surname, Obster (with a long o).

As Maurice delves deeper, new ventures—like a book club at a dive bar—end in disaster, and the perils of betrayal, mortality, and despair grow ever closer. When Emil’s death leaves Maurice reeling, he is left to confront not only these new traumas but the foundation for his own recovery. In a quest that includes love, faith, nature, and community, Maurice embarks on a vulnerable journey of self-discovery.

Recovering Maurice is a moving and precarious tale about disabilities—both visible and invisible—humor amidst frailty, and a person’s often fitful search for healing in a world full of challenges.

A Note From the Publisher

Prior to writing Recovering Maurice, Martin Zelder spent many years as a professor of economics at schools including Northwestern University, Duke University, and Australian National University. He has received teaching awards and published numerous articles and book chapters on topics including divorce, suicide, love, altruism, and health spending. Recovering Maurice is his first work of fiction.

Prior to writing Recovering Maurice, Martin Zelder spent many years as a professor of economics at schools including Northwestern University, Duke University, and Australian National University. He...

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A Note From the Publisher

Prior to writing Recovering Maurice, Martin Zelder spent many years as a professor of economics at schools including Northwestern University, Duke University, and Australian National University. He has received teaching awards and published numerous articles and book chapters on topics including divorce, suicide, love, altruism, and health spending. Recovering Maurice is his first work of fiction.

Advance Praise

"Zelder’s debut novel . . . effortlessly interweaves relatable, innocent snapshots of youth with complicated concepts, like purpose and mortality. Zelder animates the earnest Maurice with quirky, endearing, and humorous habits. . . . [R]eaders will have no choice but to root for and sympathize with Maurice, a man who “exhibited eagerness about everything else in the world,” until the very end. A surprisingly sweet depiction of trauma and recovery. . . .” - Kirkus Reviews

"Martin Zelder’s Recovering Maurice is a beautifully conceptualized novel with writing that flows naturally between present moments, memories, and glimpses of what will come, reflecting the way human consciousness operates. . .Overall, with a perfect blend of Maurice's world and thoughtful ideas, Recovering Maurice is a textured and brilliant read." - Readers' Favorite

"Recovering Maurice is a book for sensitive people; it will motivate its readers to ask questions and encourage them to analyze their own experiences from a new light." - Feathered Quill Book Reviews

“A darkly funny, deeply introspective novel about memory, family, and the uneasy work of healing a life derailed by loss . . . . [T]he novel is a fictional memoir with real literary and psychological weight. . . . Zelder’s narrative voice is exacting, emotionally honest, and at times mordantly funny. . . . The book’s real strength lies in how well it balances psychological realism with narrative inventiveness. . . . Recovering Maurice is a stirring, smart, and darkly funny exploration of the long half-life of childhood trauma. . . . Through careful prose and deeply rendered characters. . . it is . . . emotionally resonant, psychologically astute, and, in the end, surprisingly redemptive.” --John M. Murray, Independent Book Review

"Zelder’s debut novel . . . effortlessly interweaves relatable, innocent snapshots of youth with complicated concepts, like purpose and mortality. Zelder animates the earnest Maurice with quirky...