Nathan Hill's short fiction has appeared in many literary journals, including The Iowa Review, AGNI, The Gettysburg Review, and Fiction, where he was awarded the annual Fiction Prize. A native Iowan, he lives with his wife in Naples, Florida. THE NIX is his first novel.
The Winner (2024) Teddy Wayne "The Winner is a harrowing romp through the bedrooms of the rich and entitled. Teddy Wayne takes us behind the gates of a super-exclusive community, an enclave of grotesque wealth where everyone gets what they want - with disastrous consequences. A gripping, provocative, and delightfully shocking novel."
The Second Coming (2024) Garth Risk Hallberg "Reading Garth Risk Hallberg is a constant delightful surprise - you never know what's coming next: a gorgeous turn of phrase, a perfect pop culture reference, a brilliant new observation, a jaw-dropping plot twist. And all of these gifts are on full display in The Second Coming, a story about a father bound up by his mistakes, a daughter bound up in her silence, and a family in need of saving. It's a beautiful and daring novel, as inventive as it is breathtaking."
There's Going to Be Trouble (2024) Jen Silverman "Jen Silverman's remarkable new book is a thrilling journey through two generations of protest - the riotous streets of modern-day Paris, and the campus sit-ins of the Vietnam era - brilliantly weaving together the stories of two people separated by decades but confronting the same question: What happens when affairs of the heart collide with affairs of the state? This is an exhilarating novel of star-crossed romances and radical politics, with writing so evocative I swear I could smell the tear gas."
Confidence (2023) Rafael Frumkin "Confidence is an exuberant assault on contemporary wellness culture, a tale of con-men so talented they con even themselves. But it's also a very human story about the blind spots we all have, how our need for love and connection can sometimes lead us down all the wrong paths. A delightful, irreverent, and poignant novel."
The Unfolding (2022) A M Homes "A.M. Homes has perfectly captured an America as it lurches toward freak-out, and a family as it shreds the lies it's been living by... Hilarious and shocking and heartbreaking and just a little bit deranged."
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) Gabrielle Zevin "A brilliant story about life's most challenging puzzles: friendship, family, love, loss. By turns funny, poignant, wistful, and occasionally devastating."
The Red Arrow (2022) William Brewer "The Red Arrow feels like a book that's gently tapping on your brain from a different dimension. It's an astonishing portrait of a distressed mind searching for peace and hope and harmony, and finding it in the most sublime of places. Deeply insightful and often hilarious, it's a dazzling head-trip of a novel, and a profound delight."
My Year Abroad (2021) Chang-Rae Lee "My Year Abroad is a novel of astonishing wit and wisdom and scope, a globe-spanning story about those powerful first youthful encounters with love and evil and heartbreak and beauty. It’s also, by the way, enormously fun to read. Chang-rae Lee is, clearly, a master."
The Orchard (2020) David Hopen "I guess it would be accurate to call The Orchard a coming-of-age story, or a fish-out-of-water story, or a clash-of-cultures story, or a crisis-of-faith story, or a false-prophet storythe truth is, The Orchard is all of this and more. It’s a story of profound intelligence, a story of tragic grandeur, and a story unlike any other I’ve ever read."
Northernmost (2020) Peter Geye "We might as well give Peter Geye the Nobel Prize for winter, or declare him the poet laureate of snow. For no other writer so skillfully captures landscapes of glacier and tundraboth their bleakness and their particular beauty. To read him is to feel the ache of a blizzard on your skin. But in Northernmost, he has also given us an exhilarating tale of adventure and love and heartache and faith, a story of overcoming the most trying ordeals imaginable. Partly a tale of heroic survival, partly a meticulously researched history, and partly an epic romance, Northernmost is, most of all, a beautiful, big-hearted, triumphant novel."
The Great Offshore Grounds (2020) Vanessa Veselka "Vanessa Veselka is an expert portraitist of the forgotten and left behind, people struggling to make ends meet, broke and underemployed, people of deep humanity and shallow finances trying to find their place in dysfunctional America. The Great Offshore Grounds is an unforgettable journey through a country full of malice and greed and beauty and grace. A brilliant and fearless book."
True Story (2020) Kate Reed Petty "Kate Reed Petty is such a gifted writer that she can make even a college application essay feel utterly heartbreaking. And in True Story, she has given us a riveting and totally innovative novel about the power of lies to shape the truth, a book built like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle whose picture becomes thrillingly clear only after you’ve locked in the very last piece."
How to Bury Your Brother (2020) Lindsey Rogers Cook "Lindsey Rogers Cook has blessed us with this penetrating, page-turning mystery about that greatest mystery of all: family. How To Bury Your Brother is a deeply wise book about the secrets that families keep, about the dysfunctions that grumble just beneath the surface. A profoundly honest and insightful and beautiful novel."
The Altruists (2019) Andrew Ridker "It’s frankly a little unfair that a writer so young should be this talented. Not only does Andrew Ridker have a sharp eye for the absurdities and contradictions of 21st century America, but he also delivers a heartfelt and compassionate story about a family shattered by loss, now finding their awkward way back to each other. I cared so much for these people, their traumas and betrayals, their public humiliations and private failures. The Altruists is a truly remarkable debut."
Invitation to a Bonfire (2018) Adrienne Celt "The way Adrienne Celt so completely inhabits the voices and lives of her characters is an amazing thing to behold. A dazzling stylist and a powerful writer, she has given us a rich, tapestried story of love, loneliness, and betrayal."
The Dependents (2018) Katharine Dion "The Dependents is a brilliant and absorbing novel that's not afraid to ask the big questions: What is the source of happiness? How do we recover from loss? How much do we really know about the people we love? This is a masterly portrait of grief written by an author of enormous sensitivity and insight."
Lost Empress (2018) Sergio de la Pava "A hilarious, smart, and madcap novel that occupies the porous border between comedy and drama, science and philosophy, story and dream, grim reality and pure imagination. A singular achievement. I've never read anything like it."
Lake Success (2018) Gary Shteyngart "A trip through the American wasteland - from the people who have too little, to the people who have too much. Incredibly smart, incredibly funny, incredibly tragic, and therefore incredibly human, this is the perfect novel for these dysfunctional times."
The Immortalists (2018) Chloe Benjamin "A beautiful, compassionate, and even joyful novel. Chloe Benjamin has written an inspiring book that makes you think hard about what you want to do with the time you're given. This is not really a book about dying - it's a book about how to live."
The Locals (2017) Jonathan Dee "There could not be a more timely novel then The Locals...A vital book."
White Fur (2017) Jardine Libaire "Each page crackles with the intensity, fury, lust, and pure insane pleasure of first love. Jardine Libaire has written a chronicle of one couple's wild romance: its highs and lows, its delights and contractions, its beauty and its messiness. A delight to read."
Motherest (2016) Kristen Iskandrian "MOTHEREST is a moving Intensely perceptive...[the]narrator is an extraordinary character...You will want to yell at her, as I did, and you will want to cry with her, as I did, and you will be transfixed until the very last page."