Hell of a Book

Jason Mott · b. 1978 · United States

Why it matters

An unnamed Black novelist's reality-blurring book tour is repeatedly interrupted by news of Black men and boys killed by police violence, comedy curdling into grief without warning. Mott's genre-blurring National Book Award winner refuses to separate the surreal from the real.

At a glance

Reality-blurring, digressive narration shifts registers abruptly between comedy and grief.