"Funny as hell, brilliant dialogue, great characters who I just want to hang with forever and an air-tight story-line that thinks of every contingency and plans accordingly." –Tom McCaffrey, bestselling author of The Claire TrilogyWhat sucks about waking up next to a dead girl on a Saturday is, more than likely you're gonna miss brunch.Just ask Sammy Junior-full-time house painter, part-time street artist and, as of Saturday morning, prime suspect in a South Tampa homicide investigation. One more hassle he simply does not need.Then there's Penny Sullivan, a fifteen-year-old runaway who shows up in South Tampa that same Saturday morning with only her dead sister's street smarts, a whole lot of survivor's guilt, and a Canada backpack.Misunderstandings lead to Penny joining Sammy's crew, giving her a glimpse of the house painting business-where mind-numbing boredom inspires an acid-trip world of distraction, art and healing relationships.A funny, fast-paced story about friendship and love, tragedy and redemption, and the always intriguing business of house painting.

Longlisted for the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and Named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2024 “Head Fake is about how laughter can save us." —Chris Rock, comedian, actor"An absorbing, uplifting tale of finding light and self-worth in adversity’s darkest depths.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Mikey makes everything a joke, even the clinical depression he’s struggled with for years. After a run of failed jobs, he becomes the unlikely basketball coach at a high school for high-risk offenders who are experiencing mental illness. The position becomes suddenly available after the team tried to strangle their last coach.Every instinct tells Mikey to get as far away from this school as possible. Coaching these kids, who have been arrested for who-knows-what, would be difficult for a normie. For Mikey, it could cause another breakdown and force him right back to living on the street. But he knows that if he has any chance to make his twenty-sixth birthday, he needs to keep this job, even if the school board wants him fired, and the students would rather fight each other than play ball.This poignant, hilarious, and sometimes uncomfortable novel proves that even the most damaged of us can emerge victorious.

The Heartbeat Library is a tender, contemplative, and uplifting novel about grief, friendship, and the many ways we heal, by the internationally bestselling author of The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World. On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo. Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls meet: Shuichi, a 40-year-old illustrator, who returns to his hometown to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi’s house. Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows, until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . . Enchanting, touching, and emotionally riveting, The Heartbeat Library is a story about loss and hope, pain and joy, reality and imagination, and the promise of healing and overcoming the odds thanks to the relationships we build and rediscover. Inspired by Les Archives du Cœur, an art installation in Japan that permanently houses recordings of the heartbeats of people throughout the world, Laura Imai Messina returns in this novel to the themes and atmospheres of her internationally bestselling novel The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, combining a real-life pilgrimage site of healing with an unforgettable and heartwarming story.