How to speak of the searing, unpindownable power that the past - ours, our family's, our culture's - wields in the present? In five long sections, Maria Tumarkin's AXIOMATIC tells true and intimate stories of a community dealing with the extended aftermath of a suicide, a grandmother's quest to kidnap her grandson to keep him safe, one community lawyer's battle inside and against the justice system, the effects of multi-generational trauma, and the history of the author's longest friendship. In writing that is inventive, bold, and generous, AXIOMATIC is a brilliantly inventive exploration of the forces that shape our culture.