What does it truly mean to "become the best version of yourself?" To find meaning, to overcome obstacles?

In Ann Arbor author Omar Hussain's debut novel, A Thousand Natural Shocks, a charismatic figure offers a unique solution: Don't try to overcome trauma, but excise every trace from the conscious mind. To "detonate the past" you must "liberate the future," but only the most devout followers will access this obliterating salvation.

Dash, a reporter intent on forgetting no matter the cost, is determined to rise through the ranks of the faithful. But who will he be when he comes out the other side of his altered history, and how will Dash cope with the revelation of the cult's true purpose?

Under Hussain's pen, Dash's narration is frenetic, rich with ripe anxiety, and fractured by our hero's sleep deprivation, self-medication, and general mind-destroying tactics in his pursuit of erasure. From the very first pages, it's clear how the cult's mantra would resonate with a man in his state: "God is love. God is life. God is a bomb."

I spoke with Hussain about A Thousand Natural Shocks, which he is reading and signing at Literati on May 13, and his work with Defy, the communications company he co-founded.

Q: How would you describe A Thousand Natural Shocks?
A: It starts with a thought experiment. The book fundamentally tries to address the following question, which is if you could forget the worst thing that's ever happened to you or your life's biggest regret, would you? And in so doing, how would it change you? And in the process of changing, would you have any control over any of it?

And then so with that, it follows Dash, a crime reporter out in Monterey, California, who's in search of just that answer. He wants to get rid of a dark memory from 10 years prior. And he becomes entangled in an organization that's very cult-like. He knows it's cult-like, but he goes along with it anyway because of the transaction they offer, which is they promise four pills, one dose a week, that effectively wipes your memory from your earliest possible memory slowly toward the present. While this is happening, he's also being stalked by a mysterious figure that while under pressure for work, he becomes somewhat certain is the Monterey Peninsula's dormant serial killer, the Coast Killer. And as matters with the cult and the Coast Killer intensify, he stumbles upon what the cult is likely doing with its members, which, of course, isn't as they promised.

At that point, Dash has got a decision to make, which is, who does he want to be, but also nestled in that, what does it mean to be good? What does it mean to be good in the midst of all the chaos he's created? What does it mean to be good vis-a-vis his memory from the past, and his ability to answer that question not only serves as the key to undoing the madness he's created but also figuring out what life he wants to live.

Q: What made you want to tell this particular story now?
A: It's been rattling around for a fairly long time. Like I said, it goes back to that thought experiment. I've always been fascinated with the idea that, if existentialism's central thesis is existence precedes essence, so who we are and our experience then make up our personality and also our way we view the world. What happens if you remove those experiences? And whatever matter or mode that occurred, what would you become? Could you control it in any matter of fact? So I started toying around with that idea and had a few different calculations for a story and this and that.

At the same time, truth be told, my experience in watching my father pass away was quite traumatic. I was living in Monterey, California, at the time. I always found Monterey to be so perfect as a setting for something like this, which is ... I think most people who've visited or know people who live there, you think of the beautiful beaches and the very quaint Carmel and whatnot. And it is true. It is beautiful and it is quaint. But there is a gritty undertexture to the peninsula. It's like a gorgeous rock that if you pick up and you look on the underneath, you might not like what crawls out of there. So all these ideas started coming together at the same time. And I thought, well, I think this is probably worth pursuing if I could glue them together.

Q: So you glue them together as a thriller, which I think is a really interesting idea for the ideas that you're describing.
A: I think it became a thriller once the plot mandated there was a serial killer, to be honest. I think if I had to guess if that wasn't a part of the story, I think this is probably more of a plotty literary work of fiction, because it is more interested in pursuing these ideas, but it just happens to be propulsive with the genre elements. I do think one of my goals very early on was I did want to put something squarely on that up-market bullseye, right on the line between the two. It's up to the reader, I think, to get what they need out of it. If you need a musing on trauma and grief, it can be that. If you just want something to read on the beach or whatever, it can be that, too.

Q: I'm very interested in this idea of identity formation and how Dash, like you said, knowing that this is a cult that he's dealing with, but he's also doing a lot of self-medicating, and what they're offering is essentially a drug treatment as well. I'd be curious about how that aspect of searching for how to build oneself plays into the story.
A: I think it's less like building oneself [than] it is deconstructing oneself. I think just in general, we are a very haunted group of people, or we're a haunted species. We tend to dwell on the negative more than the positive. We have years and years of life, and it's really these 10 to 20 days that really put their stamp on you, for good or bad. I think Western culture is certainly in a state of heightened consciousness as it relates to trauma. And so we are focusing on that. I think the ratio of focusing on trauma to positive identity formation markers in our lives is different than it was even 20 years ago. When you think of it like that and you play into our hyper fascination with all things available to us through technology, I think you would find somebody who is haunted enough, willing to go to these extremes. And so for him, it does start with self-medication in a roundabout way, but he has an end in mind, and it will justify the means.

Q: You're a founder and managing partner at Defy, a communications firm for mission-driven organizations. I'd be curious to hear a bit about your work there and how your creative work and full-time work complement each other?
A: They're parallel to one another, I think. There's certainly creative elements. I mean, Defy is a boutique communications firm, and I spent 90% or so of my career in the social sector, working in small nonprofits, larger nonprofits, and then even the Kellogg Foundation out in Battle Creek. And I knew I wanted to position what I think I do well in this world for some social good.

As it relates to this story, before I got into the social sector, I was trying to break into journalism. It was the worst time to do it because it was the mid-2000s. They're trying to figure out their business model of moving online. And so that served as nice texture for Dash.

Shaun Manning is a founder and former co-owner of Booksweet. He is also a writer of various things, mostly comics.

Omar Hussain will discuss "A Thousand Natural Shocks" on Tuesday, May 13, at 6:30 pm at Literati Bookstore, 124 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor.