In 1987, twelve-year-old Cooper Balsam's mother, Arden, disappears without a trace. Cooper's father, Percy, a Vietnam veteran struggling with PTSD, doesn't seem too concerned. "This isn't the first time. She's done it before." As days pass, Cooper begins to act out and withdraw from the world, and his growing animosity toward his father's ambivalence begins to escalate even as Percy and Cooper begin to actively search for the woman in their lives. From the hills of Southern California, to the deserts of Arizona, and down to the beaches of Mexico, the father and son will look for someone who may not want to be found for reasons they don't yet understand.

"William Jensen's compelling debut novel touches a central mystery of contemporary American life: How can a boy manage to become a man when all the models he has are numb, angry, damaged-or absent altogether?" -John Benditt, PEN-nominated and National Jewish Book Award-winning author of The Boatmaker

". . . deeply moving and complex . . . has an ear to the ground for what makes us fully human: our yearning for more than the world will give. CITIES OF MEN asks the big questions that all great novels do: Who are we? And how do we know? Jensen is a writer to watch."-Scott Blackwood, PEN USA Award finalist and Whiting Writers' Award-winning author

"William Jensen's CITIES OF MEN manages the remarkable..."-Manhattan Book Review