Misconception

The American Dream doesn't come with a safety net. Darah Coleman grows up in working-class Dublin, raised in a small flat shaped by scarcity, need, and an abusive father whose anger leaves marks long after childhood ends. From an early age, Darah learns two lessons that will follow him across an ocean: work hard, and never rely on anyone to save you. When he wins the Green Card lottery and emigrates to the United States, America seems to reward exactly that discipline. A career as an accountant and upward mobility to a company CEO provides him with Money and Status. Proof that he has escaped the life he was born into. For a time, it feels like triumph, not just over poverty, but over the past itself. But success in America is conditional and fragile. One mistake is all it takes. When Darah's carefully life begins to collapse, there is no cushion beneath him. No institution steps in. No system slows the fall. The same country that celebrated his ascent offers little mercy in his ruin, leaving him to face the consequences alone. Misconception is a novel about rise and reckoning, about immigration stripped of sentimentality, and about the long shadow of childhood trauma carried into adulthood. It explores a society that celebrates success while offering little protection when it disappears and the human cost of falling through the cracks.