The Nix

Author(s): Nathan Hill

Fiction

'The best new writer of fiction in America. The best.' - John Irving Nathan Hill's brilliant debut takes the reader from the rural Midwest of the 1960s, to New York City during Occupy Wall Street; from Chicago in 1968, to wartime Norway: home of the mysterious Nix. Meet Samuel: stalled writer, bored teacher at a local college, obsessive player of online video games. He hasn't seen his mother, Faye, in decades, not since she abandoned her family when he was a boy. Now she has suddenly reappeared, having committed an absurd politically motivated crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the Internet, and inflames a divided America. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she's facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel's help. As Samuel begins to excavate his mother's - and his country's - history, he will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about her - a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she has kept hidden from the world.

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A gloriously ambitious, witty and deeply touching debut novel of fifty years of America and of American radical protest, the story of a son, the mother who left him as a child, and how his search to uncover the secrets of her life leads him to reclaim his own.

The Nix is a mother-son psychodrama with ghosts and politics, but it's also a tragicomedy about anger and sanctimony in America. Even the minor characters go to extremes - 'A maestro of being awful,' the son calls his mom. Nathan Hill is a maestro of being terrific. -- John Irving Hill skillfully blends humor and darkness, imagery and observation. He also excels at describing technology, addition, cultural milestones, and childhood ordeals. Cameos by Allen Ginsberg, Walter Cronkite, and Hubert Humphrey add heart and perspective to this rich, lively take on American social conflict, real and invented, over the last half-century. Publishers' Weekly, starred and boxed review A grand entertainment, smart and well-paced, and a book that promises good work to come. Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Nathan Hill was born in Iowa in 1975 and lives with his wife in Naples, Florida. The Nix is his first novel.

General Fields

  • : 9781509807840
  • : Pan Macmillan
  • : Picador
  • : 0.847
  • : September 2016
  • : 234mm X 153mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : July 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Nathan Hill
  • : Paperback
  • : Air Iri OME
  • : English
  • : 813/.6
  • : 636