The Celebrants

A Big Chill for our times, from the acclaimed and adored author of The Guncle, honoring connections and vows that last decades—especially to ourselves.

Jordan Vargas hasn't seen his college pals in a minute—or five years—and it has been twenty-eight years since their graduation, marking the formal start of their adult life. At the start of a new decade, Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves with all the obligations of maturity, but they are still a long way from having their lives worked out. but not for want of effort. at order to follow a long-standing agreement to have living "funerals," or festivities to remind one another that life is valuable and that their lives matter, even if just to themselves, they have gotten back together at Big Sur throughout the years.

This reunion, however, is unique. They're not assembled as they were to support Marielle at the breakdown of her marriage, to encourage Naomi following the death of her parents, or to step in when Craig entered a guilty plea to art fraud. Jordan has a secret this time that might break their agreement.

A poignant story about the false invincibility of youth and the lovely ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the most difficult obstacles of living, The Celebrants is a deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going. It also features Steven Rowley's trademark humor and heart.