The Slip

Schaefer debuts with a rollicking tale of transformation revolving around a boxing gym in Austin, Tex. Nathaniel Rothstein, 16, is sent from his hometown in Newton, Mass., to spend the summer of 1998 with his uncle Bob in Austin. Bob sets him up with a job at a local nursing facility alongside David, a Haitian immigrant and fellow member of Bob’s boxing gym. David, who is Black and aware that white boys such as Nathaniel lap up everything he says, regales him with tales of his sexual conquests. The stories fill Nathaniel with desire, and he pretends to be Black to a phone sex hotline operator he knows as Sasha. As the end of summer nears, Nathaniel resolves to meet Sasha, who turns out to be linked to his disappearance. Nathaniel is still missing in 2014, when Bob and a hapless cop, another of the gym’s patrons, try to solve the mystery after a new lead comes to light. The circuitous route to its resolution includes colorful if exhausting detours into the lives of side characters, including a small-town beauty queen turned nude model turned hairdresser, a border-hopping clown, an undocumented up-and-coming boxer, and a quick-witted, elderly Italian American woman. This one-of-a-kind tale delights and exasperates, often on the same page. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists Literary. (June)