Class Dismissed explores the triumphs and tragedies of teaching – and the Kafkaesque bureaucracy that one gifted New York City public school teacher finds himself in after an accident involving his most difficult student. Simultaneously as cynical as the city he now calls home and as sincere as his Midwestern roots, Patrick Lynch is an unforgettable narrator, one you’ll root for as he buckles under the weight of his own mistakes. This novel is both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving, and marks an impressive debut.