ABOUT THE BOOK

One month before his college graduation, Paul Rousseau is accidentally shot in the head by his roommate and best friend. 

Friendly Fire is the raw, compelling true story of their friendship, the gunshot, and the aftermath. 

At some point in the course of knowing Paul, Mark acquired—legally and with required permits—five firearms. Those weapons lived with them in the college apartment they shared. It was a non-issue for the two best friends. They were inseparable. They were 22-year-old boys at the height of their college experience, unaware that everything was about to change forever.  

The bullet ripped through two walls before it struck Paul’s skull. Mark had accidentally pulled the trigger while in the other room and—frightened for his own future—delayed getting vital treatment for Paul, who miraculously remained conscious the entire time. In vivid detail, Friendly Fire brings us into the world of both the shooting itself and its surgical counterpoint—the dark spaces of survival in the face of a traumatic brain injury and into the paranoid, isolating, dehumanizing maw of personal injury cases. 

Through phenomenal writing and gripping detail, we join Paul as he navigates the trauma of brain injury, the dehumanization of personal injury cases, and the pieces of a devastated relationship, revealing a compelling and inspirational story that unfortunately is an illustration of contemporary American life.

Watch the book trailer here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Rousseau is a disabled writer whose work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Roxane Gay’s newsletter The Audacity, Wigleaf, Catapult and CRAFT, among others, and has been selected for Best Small Fictions 2024, the Wigleaf Top 50, as well as nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. You can find more of his work online at Paul-Rousseau.com.

TALKING POINTS

• Accidental shootings and how they fit into the conversation about gun violence, gun ownership, and college campus safety 
• Living with Traumatic Brain Injury
• The specific challenges of an invisible disability
• The enduring effects of trauma and violence 
• Understanding when a friendship becomes toxic
• Literary writing as a method of cathartic expression