{"product_id":"brat-9780593656891","title":"Brat","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003eBrat \u003c\/i\u003eis a raucous story of the messy, messed-up business of living, dying and having a family.\" \u003ci\u003e--\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"The novel crackles with gothic horror, deadpan humor, and a damning sense of alienation that you won't soon shake.\"\u003ci\u003e \u003ci\u003e--Chicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom a provocative new literary talent, a hilarious and haunted novel featuring an unlikable protagonist grappling with grief, inheritance, and the ghosts of his past \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe meet our ill-tempered protagonist--the story's titular \"brat\"--at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. The Gabriel of the novel 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. Here, the clichés end. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGabriel has trouble delivering on his promises: as the moldy, overgrown house deteriorates around him, so does his own health, and large sheets of his skin begin to peel from his body at a terrifying rate. 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eStrange people and figures emerge--perhaps directly from the novel's embedded fictions--and despite his compromised state (and his more successful brother's growing frustration) Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings. Part ghost story, part grief story, flirting with the autofictional mode while sitting squarely in the tradition of the gothic, \u003ci\u003eBrat \u003c\/i\u003ecrackles with deadpan humor and delightfully taut prose. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGabriel Smith's arrival heralds the next generation of fiction writers--formally inventive, influenced by the rhythms of the internet, and infused with a particularly Gen Z sense of alienation. Irreverent and boundary-pushing, but not for its own sake, the novel that follows is muscular yet lyrical, riddled with paradox, and told with a truly rare and compelling clarity of voice. \u003ci\u003eBrat \u003c\/i\u003eis a serious debut that refuses to take itself too seriously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGabriel Smith\u003c\/b\u003e is an author living in London. A winner of the 2023 PEN\/O. Henry Award, his fiction has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Drift\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Tyrant Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Moth.\u003c\/i\u003e He was mentored by the late Giancarlo DiTrapano of Tyrant Books.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51346499928338,"sku":"9780593656891","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7e30a424-38c6-4850-8638-a92f3349cbaf.jpg?v=1749047342","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/brat-9780593656891","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}