Hell of a Book
(Sprache: Englisch)
An astounding work of fiction from a New York Times bestselling author, both incredibly funny and heartfelt, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans, and America as a whole
In Hell of a Book,...
In Hell of a Book,...
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An astounding work of fiction from a New York Times bestselling author, both incredibly funny and heartfelt, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans, and America as a wholeIn Hell of a Book, an African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives the novel and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since the novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.
Throughout, these characters' stories build and build and as they converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art, and money, there always is the tragic story of a police shooting playing over and over on the news.
Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably powerful, an electrifying high-wire act, ideal for book clubs and the book Mott says he has been writing in his head for ten years, Hell of a Book in its final twists truly becomes its title.
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I.In the corner of the small living room of the small country house at the end of the dirt road beneath the blue Carolina sky, the dark-skinned five-year-old boy sat with his knees pulled to his chest and his small, dark arms wrapped around his legs and it took all that he had to contain the laughter inside the thrumming cage of his chest.
His mother, seated on the couch with her dark hands folded into her lap and her brow furrowed like Mr. Johnson's fields at the end of winter, pursed her lips and fidgeted with the fabric of the tattered gray dress she wore. It was a dress she'd bought before the boy even came into this world. It aged with him. Year upon year, the blue floral pattern faded, one shade of color at a time. The threads around the hem lost their grip on things. They broke apart and reached their dangling necks in every direction that might take them away. And now, after seven years of hard work, the dress looked as though it would not be able to hold its fraying fabric together much longer.
"Did you find him?" the boy's mother asked as her husband came into the room.
"No," the boy's father said. He was a tall man with large eyes and a long, gangly frame that had earned him the nickname "Skinniest Nigga Breathing" back when he was a boy. The name had stuck over the years, lashed across his back from childhood to manhood, and, having never found a cure for his almost mythological thinness, the man had taken to wearing long-sleeved clothes everywhere he went because the empty air held within the sleeves made him look larger than he was. At least, that was what he believed.
He was a man who had been afraid of the eyes of others for all of his life. How could he not want his child to learn the impossible trick of invisibility?
... mehr
"It's okay," he said. "We'll find him soon. I know it. I'm sure that, wherever he is, he's fine. He can take care of himself. He's always going to be fine." He took a seat beside his wife on the tired brown couch and wrapped the spindly reeds of his fingers around the fidgeting doves that were her hands. He lifted them to his lips and kissed them. "He's a good kid," the father said. "He wouldn't just up and leave us. We'll find him."
"He's the best boy in the whole world," the mother said.
"Maybe he just went off into the woods to find some briarberries. I bet that's where he went."
"You think so?"
The father thought for a moment. "Not sure, but I'm hopeful, Dollface."
The boy's mother chuckled at "Dollface" and dabbed the corner of her eye. Was she crying?
The groundswell of laughter that had been tickling the boy's throat for so long finally-as he sat, invisible and unseen only an arm's length away-faded at the sight of his mother's tears. His arms tightened around his legs.
He shouldn't have done this. He shouldn't have made them worry like this. They were good parents and they hated worrying about him. A lead ball of regret formed in the boy's stomach. It rang and drummed through his entire body. He needed to stop this trick he was playing on them . . . but how?
What could he do? He was less than two feet from where his parents sat, but guilt over his mother's tears pushed down on the hands that would reach out and touch her and let her know he was there. It weighted down the tongue that would sing her name and free her from fear.
There was no way, his five-year-old mind figured, that he could let them know that it had all been a joke. He could never explain to them that this was all meant to be fun. Not just fun, a celebration! After all, he had done it! For three years now, his mother and father had been trying to teach him to become invisible, to become "The Unseen." That was the name the boy's father gave to it. He said the words with a fantastic tone. He spoke with his hands in the air, sweeping back and forth gently like he was playing some magical instrument. "You will become The Unse
"It's okay," he said. "We'll find him soon. I know it. I'm sure that, wherever he is, he's fine. He can take care of himself. He's always going to be fine." He took a seat beside his wife on the tired brown couch and wrapped the spindly reeds of his fingers around the fidgeting doves that were her hands. He lifted them to his lips and kissed them. "He's a good kid," the father said. "He wouldn't just up and leave us. We'll find him."
"He's the best boy in the whole world," the mother said.
"Maybe he just went off into the woods to find some briarberries. I bet that's where he went."
"You think so?"
The father thought for a moment. "Not sure, but I'm hopeful, Dollface."
The boy's mother chuckled at "Dollface" and dabbed the corner of her eye. Was she crying?
The groundswell of laughter that had been tickling the boy's throat for so long finally-as he sat, invisible and unseen only an arm's length away-faded at the sight of his mother's tears. His arms tightened around his legs.
He shouldn't have done this. He shouldn't have made them worry like this. They were good parents and they hated worrying about him. A lead ball of regret formed in the boy's stomach. It rang and drummed through his entire body. He needed to stop this trick he was playing on them . . . but how?
What could he do? He was less than two feet from where his parents sat, but guilt over his mother's tears pushed down on the hands that would reach out and touch her and let her know he was there. It weighted down the tongue that would sing her name and free her from fear.
There was no way, his five-year-old mind figured, that he could let them know that it had all been a joke. He could never explain to them that this was all meant to be fun. Not just fun, a celebration! After all, he had done it! For three years now, his mother and father had been trying to teach him to become invisible, to become "The Unseen." That was the name the boy's father gave to it. He said the words with a fantastic tone. He spoke with his hands in the air, sweeping back and forth gently like he was playing some magical instrument. "You will become The Unse
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Autoren-Porträt von Jason Mott
Jason Mott
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Jason Mott
- 2021, Internationale Ausgabe, 336 Seiten, Maße: 20,6 x 14,1 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Dutton
- ISBN-10: 0593185862
- ISBN-13: 9780593185865
- Erscheinungsdatum: 21.06.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for Hell of a Book It is a story of love and family. It is powerful poignant and beautiful and what makes me so excited is I cannot wait to be part of these conversations It s a story of race, family, love, and justice. It s original and Jason Mott is a talent. Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna
Hell of a Book more than lives up to its title. Playful, searching, raw, and necessary, this writing, this voice, this novel twisted me up and turned me inside out, dazzled me, surprised me and moved me. Charles Yu, author of the National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown
What a powerful, timely, and provocative novel. Jason's ability to take on deeply important themes with both poignancy and humor makes for an extraordinary emotional rollercoaster of a read, and I tore through this profoundly moving novel in a day but have been thinking about it ever since. Thank you, Jason Mott, for sharing this story with the world. Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl with the Louding Voice
Hell of a Book teetertotters real life and fiction in a dizzying yet dazzling exploration of exploration itself. Jason Mott brings much of what he's known for and a lot of what we do not expect to this inventive offering. Kiese Laymon, author of How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
At turns hilarious and moving, thoughtful and madcap, Hell of a Book manages simultaneously to address momentous issues and ask pressing questions, while somehow remaining light on its feet, which is a hell of an accomplishment. Jonathan Evison, bestselling author of West of Here and Small World
Mott s unflinching meditation on racism, violence, and navigating life as a Black man in America is a surreal and searing triumph. Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)
Hell of a Book is a masterwork of balance,
... mehr
as Mott navigates the two narratives and their delicate tonal distinctions. A surrealist feast of imagination that s brimming with very real horrors, frustrations, and sorrows, it can break your heart and make you laugh out loud at the same time, often on the same page. This is an achievement of American fiction that rises to meet this particular moment with charm, wisdom, and truth. BookPage (starred review)
Stunning Mott s poetic, cinematic novel tackles what it means to live in a country where Black people perpetually live lives under the hanging sword of fear. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A singular writer who refused to be boxed in and proves it again with yes, a hell of a book. CBS Saturday Morning
Maddening, disorienting, and illuminating. Booklist
A story that is at once a paean to familial love and friendship and a reckoning with racism and police violence. By turns playful and surprising and intimate, a moving meditation on being Black in America. Kirkus
Alternates between the perspective of a Black author on a book tour across the United States and a young Black boy living in the rural South, until their perspectives merge in surprising ways. The New York Times Book Review's Also Out Now
Hell of a Book is a love story, even if it s about a love that led to grief. Our narrator s heartbreak is what causes him to see the world through a broken lens, to the point that plot-oriented readers may find themselves frustrated. But the beauty of the novel is in the cracks that distort the plot. His conversations with The Kid lead to very real reckonings with his life, his skin color, his book. And at the end, when the narrator tries to come to terms with it all both what s real and what's imagined he realizes that being Black in America and existing is a journey of love. Washington Post
A surrealistic tale about a famous author on a book tour becomes an exploration of police violence and the havoc it wreaks. Entertainment Weekly
In a genre-bending work of metafiction, Jason Mott weaves together a first-person narrative about a famous author out on a book tour with an alternate story line about a (maybe) imaginary boy caught in the societal fallout of police brutality. The result blends satire and quietly devastating prose that reflects a loudly devastating reality. With Hell of a Book, Mott resists the urge to drown in rage and instead showers the reader with necessary truths." Entertainment Weekly
In increasingly intertwining narratives, a Black novelist with a penchant for noir dialogue and a shaky grip on reality tours his debut novel; a boy, bullied for his dark skin, comes of age. Vanity Fair
An intensely moving and thoughtful novel, and it s also a love story, though perhaps not in the way that you (or the narrator) might be expecting. Within the pages of this innovative example of postmodern storytelling, Mott also reveals the lasting scars of America s legacy of racism and celebrates those who find ways, against all odds, to overcome them. BookReporter
A timely and robust exploration of myriad forms of love and the precariousness of being Black in America. Mott masterfully threads two seemingly disparate narrativesone fantastical, the other all too familiar into a labyrinthine surrealist tale that is by turns farcical and heartrending, tragic and redemptive. The Charleston Post and Courier
All three of Mott's novels to date...have revolved around elements or fantasy, the supernatural or the paranormal. Yet reality has a way of creeping in. In Hell of a Book, Mott demonstrates that fantasy, or magical realism, is sometimes the best way to confront it.... Mott treats us to a long, wild ride. In the process, he subtly delivers an old-fashioned philosophical novel, treating Black self-loathing, the issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the question of whether minority writers should only write about 'Black' issues. In the process, Mott lives up to his advertising and earns a place on the shelf beside such African-American writers as Colson Whitehead and Octavia Butler. Star News
A powerfully envisioned and artfully crafted exploration of identity and love (in their many forms), and of the unrelenting perils of being Black in America. Mott masterfully weaves together two seemingly disparate narratives one a fantastical book tour for an unnamed author, the other an all too familiar story of police violence in a Black community into a labyrinthian surrealist tale that is by turns farcical and heartbreaking, tragic and redemptive. Southern Review of Books
For all its moments of levity, Mott has written a deadly serious story. By taking readers inside the psychic toll of racial trauma, Hell of a Book offers a disturbing portrait of a nation that s been lying to itself all its years. In this way, the novel feels like a plea intense, moving, urgent, and vital. Washington Independent Review of Books
It should be one of your favorite books Poignant and beautiful. Zibby Owens, Good Day LA
When you re reading this, you can t help but feel like you re in on an inside joke that keeps on getting funnier. Jason Mott truly has written one hell of a book. Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
Recently named the 2021 National Book Award winner, Jason Mott s hilarious, anguished and aptly titled novel tells the story of a weary, bleary-eyed author who comes unstuck in reality while out on a book tour. Well, he s always been that way, but it s getting worse. Exhibit A: The part where he seems to have forgotten that he s Black. Exhibit B: The parts where he converses with a mystery child no one else can see. With America s weekly tragedy cycle as a backdrop, Hell of a Book is sometimes a devastating satire and sometimes just devastating. The Philadelphia Inquirer
A book that is both hilarious and horrifying, meditative and breathless, absurd, and, ultimately, true. The Bitter Southerner
Brilliant and inventive. What is most surprising, however, is how funny the novel is. Jason Mott, an already successful American novelist, has dared to bring anarchic farce, vertiginous layers of irony and often riotous hilarity to the Black Lives Matter movement. Striking...intelligent...ingenious. The Sunday Times (UK)
Stunning Mott s poetic, cinematic novel tackles what it means to live in a country where Black people perpetually live lives under the hanging sword of fear. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A singular writer who refused to be boxed in and proves it again with yes, a hell of a book. CBS Saturday Morning
Maddening, disorienting, and illuminating. Booklist
A story that is at once a paean to familial love and friendship and a reckoning with racism and police violence. By turns playful and surprising and intimate, a moving meditation on being Black in America. Kirkus
Alternates between the perspective of a Black author on a book tour across the United States and a young Black boy living in the rural South, until their perspectives merge in surprising ways. The New York Times Book Review's Also Out Now
Hell of a Book is a love story, even if it s about a love that led to grief. Our narrator s heartbreak is what causes him to see the world through a broken lens, to the point that plot-oriented readers may find themselves frustrated. But the beauty of the novel is in the cracks that distort the plot. His conversations with The Kid lead to very real reckonings with his life, his skin color, his book. And at the end, when the narrator tries to come to terms with it all both what s real and what's imagined he realizes that being Black in America and existing is a journey of love. Washington Post
A surrealistic tale about a famous author on a book tour becomes an exploration of police violence and the havoc it wreaks. Entertainment Weekly
In a genre-bending work of metafiction, Jason Mott weaves together a first-person narrative about a famous author out on a book tour with an alternate story line about a (maybe) imaginary boy caught in the societal fallout of police brutality. The result blends satire and quietly devastating prose that reflects a loudly devastating reality. With Hell of a Book, Mott resists the urge to drown in rage and instead showers the reader with necessary truths." Entertainment Weekly
In increasingly intertwining narratives, a Black novelist with a penchant for noir dialogue and a shaky grip on reality tours his debut novel; a boy, bullied for his dark skin, comes of age. Vanity Fair
An intensely moving and thoughtful novel, and it s also a love story, though perhaps not in the way that you (or the narrator) might be expecting. Within the pages of this innovative example of postmodern storytelling, Mott also reveals the lasting scars of America s legacy of racism and celebrates those who find ways, against all odds, to overcome them. BookReporter
A timely and robust exploration of myriad forms of love and the precariousness of being Black in America. Mott masterfully threads two seemingly disparate narrativesone fantastical, the other all too familiar into a labyrinthine surrealist tale that is by turns farcical and heartrending, tragic and redemptive. The Charleston Post and Courier
All three of Mott's novels to date...have revolved around elements or fantasy, the supernatural or the paranormal. Yet reality has a way of creeping in. In Hell of a Book, Mott demonstrates that fantasy, or magical realism, is sometimes the best way to confront it.... Mott treats us to a long, wild ride. In the process, he subtly delivers an old-fashioned philosophical novel, treating Black self-loathing, the issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the question of whether minority writers should only write about 'Black' issues. In the process, Mott lives up to his advertising and earns a place on the shelf beside such African-American writers as Colson Whitehead and Octavia Butler. Star News
A powerfully envisioned and artfully crafted exploration of identity and love (in their many forms), and of the unrelenting perils of being Black in America. Mott masterfully weaves together two seemingly disparate narratives one a fantastical book tour for an unnamed author, the other an all too familiar story of police violence in a Black community into a labyrinthian surrealist tale that is by turns farcical and heartbreaking, tragic and redemptive. Southern Review of Books
For all its moments of levity, Mott has written a deadly serious story. By taking readers inside the psychic toll of racial trauma, Hell of a Book offers a disturbing portrait of a nation that s been lying to itself all its years. In this way, the novel feels like a plea intense, moving, urgent, and vital. Washington Independent Review of Books
It should be one of your favorite books Poignant and beautiful. Zibby Owens, Good Day LA
When you re reading this, you can t help but feel like you re in on an inside joke that keeps on getting funnier. Jason Mott truly has written one hell of a book. Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
Recently named the 2021 National Book Award winner, Jason Mott s hilarious, anguished and aptly titled novel tells the story of a weary, bleary-eyed author who comes unstuck in reality while out on a book tour. Well, he s always been that way, but it s getting worse. Exhibit A: The part where he seems to have forgotten that he s Black. Exhibit B: The parts where he converses with a mystery child no one else can see. With America s weekly tragedy cycle as a backdrop, Hell of a Book is sometimes a devastating satire and sometimes just devastating. The Philadelphia Inquirer
A book that is both hilarious and horrifying, meditative and breathless, absurd, and, ultimately, true. The Bitter Southerner
Brilliant and inventive. What is most surprising, however, is how funny the novel is. Jason Mott, an already successful American novelist, has dared to bring anarchic farce, vertiginous layers of irony and often riotous hilarity to the Black Lives Matter movement. Striking...intelligent...ingenious. The Sunday Times (UK)
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