We Are Not Ourselves, the highly anticipated first novel of Xavier English teacher Matthew Thomas, has been released to critical acclaim. Matt was born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens. After graduating from Regis High School in 1993, Matt attended the University of Chicago. He earned an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where he received the Graduate Essay Award. He and his wife Joy live in New Jersey with their two children. Currently on leave from Xavier, while on the faculty Matt taught English and Creative Writing, moderated the Lexicon and served as the assistant director of admissions.

We Are Not Ourselves is a multi-generational novel of an Irish-American family from Woodside, Queens. Speaking about the novel, Mr. Jonathan Cambras, Xavier’s admissions director and a colleague of Mr. Thomas in the English department said: “The book is fantastic. It is one of the best character driven novels I have ever read. Rare is the book in which one can get so interested in so many characters so quickly. It really is great.”

The book has received a host of laudatory press. The New York Times, The Guardian and The New Yorker,  have all published glowing reviews. We Are Not Ourselves is available at bookstores across America as well as online.