The Survivors, their members known only by the order in which they
joined, live alone in a rural Colorado mansion. They believe that
sickness bears honesty, and that honesty bears change. Fueled by the
ritualized Cytoxan treatments that leave them on the verge of death,
they instigate the Day of Gifts, a day that spells shocking violence and
the group's demise.
Enter Mason Hues, formerly known as Thirty-Seven, the group's final
member and the only one both alive and free. Eighteen years old and
living in a spartan apartment after his release from a year of intensive
mental health counseling, he takes a job at a thrift shop and expects to
while away his days as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.
But when his enigmatic boss Talley learns his secret, she comes to
believe that there is still hope in the Survivor philosophy. She pushes
Mason to start the group over again--this time with himself as One.
Part Fight Club, part The Girls, and entirely unlike anything you've
ever experienced, Peter Stenson's Thirty-Seven is an audacious and
austere novel that explores our need to belong. Our need to be loved.
Our need to believe in something greater than ourselves, and ultimately
our capacity for self-delusion.
