Despite suffering from a recent glacier-related concussion, Justin Torres seems to be doing pretty damn well.

The packed house at McNally Jackson on Tuesday night attested to this. Justin has been getting a whole lotta accolades for his debut novel, We The Animals, but there was a second reason as well: as a former McNally worker, Justin was home. “This used to be my section,” Justin joked at the podium, gesturing behind him. “I shelved this.”

Justin read the first two chapters of his book. “We Wanted More” introduces the nameless narrator and his two restless brothers. The second chapter focuses more on their mother, who works late hours at a brewery and often loses track of the time and day. When she finds her sons in the kitchen hitting tomatoes with a mallet, she sighs that they should be in school—even though it is both nighttime and Sunday. Seeing them covered with tomato juice, they muses that they look like they did when they first “slid” out of her. She asks them to cover her too, which results in their gleeful shouting: “It’s a Mom! Congratulations!”

With a crowd comprised of Justin’s fans, friends, former coworkers, mother’s grade school friends and “Uncle Jack,” the Q&A was both lively and jovial. When asked by a former coworker about his path to publication, Justin laughingly imitated her amazement: “How the hell…what happened to you??”

Justin spoke of joining a friend at a writing class, where he began writing episodes that all focused on the same family, vaguely based on experiences from his own life. He began to put them together, and since he’d never intended to be a writer in the first place, he was exempt from pressure to write “a 400 page novel that encapsulates the human experience.”

Many urged Justin to flesh out his short novel (just 144 pp in hardback). Though he attempted to add a second narrative (which he called “horrible”), he ultimately knew he wanted to keep the story concise. Citing both short-form writers (Stuart Dybek, Tillie Olsen) and poets (Emily Dickinson) as influences, he stood firm and finally found an editor who understood his intentions.

Justin’s family’s reactions have been varied. His mother has read the book several times, always with accompanying tears (“She’s probably crying right now”). His brothers haven’t spoken with him directly about the book, but have let it slip to their mother that they’re proud. But as for his father—so far there’s been radio silence. “I’ve been waiting,” Justin said. “Any minute now, I’m sure I’ll get a phone call. And I’m sure it will be loud.”

As for the infamous Antarctica incident? Justin started, “Sooo, I don’t know if you guys have ever been on a glacier…” Warning to future Antarctica travelers: there’s a “moraine” layer of ice that one should avoid at all costs. Not realizing this, Justin strode out upon it, creating a rock slide and falling on his face. (Yes, there was alcohol involved.)

“There were no doctors,” Justin stressed. “No law!” A park ranger told him they could call in a helicopter, or just see what happened.

Justin shrugged. “I was too shy for the helicopter.”