Brat: A Novel“Brat is a raucous story of the messy, messed-up business of living, dying and having a family.” —Financial Times “The novel crackles with gothic horror, deadpan humor, and a damning sense of alienation that you won’t soon shake.” —Chicago Review of Books From a provocative literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. Gabriel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents’ house to clear it out for sale. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents that seem to mutate every time he picks them up and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets. Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—but despite his compromised state, Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story, flirting with the auto-fictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, Brat crackles with dead-pan humor and delightfully taut prose, heralding the next generation of fiction—formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ALEX Alfa Romeo Spider asleep bathroom bedroom bin bag bitch blue breakfast bar brother brother's wife camera cannabis Charlotte Brown chest Christopher Lee cigarette coffee cold Cornetto Dad's dark Davey dead deer doctor Donald Sutherland door downstairs eczema ELIZABETH estate agent eyes face father feel Felix felt finger guns floor fridge front fucking garden girl going grandmother grinning hand head heard joke kitchen laughing light looked Lovage manuscript Molly mother mother's study moving Okay oligarch opened painting peeling PHIL ROBIN PHIL’S LIVING ROOM plants polo shirts pressed play pulled rain Rebecca remember Robert De Niro ROBIN PHIL scarlet macaw script skin slightly smelled smiling snowstorm sorry sound Spike started stood stopped story Sukov tape television there's things thought took turned underneath upstairs Volodislav waiting walked watching window Xanax Yeah