Brat A Novel poster

Brat A Novel

By Gabriel Smith

First published 2024

“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.

Published
2024
Pages
320
Publisher
Penguin
Edition
Hardcover
Elsewhere
Open Library
  • Horror
  • Comedy
  • Drama

How members shelved it

Nobody has logged this yet.