The Men Can't Be Saved

A rollicking debut novel that “transcends the act of reading fiction” (Hanif Abdurraqib) while tackling a haunting question: What do our jobs do to our souls?

A knockout debut novel “by one of my favorite writers” (Clint Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author) that tackles a haunting question: What do our jobs do to our souls?

Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. But this professional triumph won’t fix his personal life. His coworker crush won’t be seen with him; he mistakes his local barista’s disaffection for devotion; and a romance-seeking Birthright trip lands him in a Jerusalem hospital bed. To top all this off, he’s almost certainly addicted to pills.

When his job lets him go, he can’t let go of his job. Thankfully one former colleague can’t let him go either: Robert “Moon” McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a dorm room than a boardroom. When Seth gets taken in by an overeager Orthodox rabbi, he tries to forget Moon and find higher purpose—but is he only digging himself deeper?

With this debut novel, Purkert incisively explores self-worth through two kinds of toxic masculinity: the guys who see no problem with their bad behavior and those who don’t see it as bad at all. Brimming with wit, irreverence, and soul-searching, The Men Can’t Be Saved is a startlingly original examination of work, religion, sex, drugs, and ourselves.