Surviving Uranus, (83k words) is a smartly-written character-driven dysfunctional family dramedy-adventure.

Tobias Bluestein, a neurotic 39 year-old filmmaker with trust issues must schlep to a obscure, obstacle-laden island to bury his drug-running, astrology-spouting, unpublished-novelist father. Along the way, he has to reconcile with his overeducated, underachieving sister, reconnect with a forgotten half-brother, and confront his intolerance of organized religion.

With no modern funerary services available on the tiny island, the three estranged siblings are forced to work together and perform the burial as if it were an ancient ritual—by hand. They must construct a coffin, clean the corpse; and lay to rest their ambivalence about their charismatic but irresponsible patriarch along with his remains.

The main narrative is colored with flashbacks that chart Toby’s relationship with his dad as it developed, blossomed, and then rotted over several decades—leaving a fracture in his life that Toby would rather deny than repair. Finally, his discovery of a disquieting secret provokes him to face his own complicity in their broken relationship, and its stranglehold on the rest of his life.