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"Friction" unfolds over the course of 2014, a tumultuous year that saw pro-Russian militants seize large swaths of Eastern Ukraine, the Islamic State rise up in the Middle East, police brutality reignite racial tensions in the U.S., and heroin addiction devastate lives across the country, particularly in the Midwest. Written in a free-flowing style punctuated by shifts in font size, the novel follows the relationship between two Clevelanders during the year—Angelika, a recovering heroin addict increasingly drawn into the conflict in her ancestral Ukraine, and Ed, an “astronomical folklorist” with a penchant for Sun Ra recordings, trying, perhaps, just to stay tethered to Earth. Identities flitter and morph as 2014 rumbles on and the two struggle to find meaningful roles amidst the upheaval.