Brat

Praise

“Instead of resolving his novel’s many mysteries, Smith explores how this family navigates the disputed borders of its shared memories, pondering what it means to choose one story over another—as well as the consequences of refusing to choose, especially in the wake of grief.” —The New York Times

“For readers looking for something that will grip you from start to finish, Brat is sure to be your breath of fresh air. The novel crackles with gothic horror, deadpan humor, and a damning sense of alienation that you won’t soon shake.” —Chicago Review of Books

“A raw, delicate tale about grief and growing up, in which the protagonist’s brattiness is mostly window dressing . . . The result is a novel about the power and mutability of family lore, written in a tenderpunk style that conceals its sentimentality behind an appealing coat of sarcasm.” —The New Yorker

“Smith evokes a distressingly potent sense of disquiet. Brat is a piece of suburban gothic, the rules of engagement between characters, and the sense of time all operating with the unhinged logic of a nightmare . . . It’s written in short, sharp bursts of action, savvy dialogue, or interiority . . . Full of dark, deadpan humor, Brat is a raucous story of the messy, messed-up business of living, dying and having a family.” —Financial Times

“Weirdly good, even great . . . Just as the characters reveal their provocations to be endearments, so does the book. It becomes earnest, even sentimental, in the best way: it expresses something conventional yet true . . . Smith has pulled off a peculiar bildungsomething, in which the book grows up with the character.” —Bookforum
 
“Between beginning and ending, things get pretty damn weird. Until the last few chapters, that is, when order is restored almost as neatly as in an Elizabethan comedy . . . This is hip gothic . . . There are many moments of deadpan humor . . . Smith’s prose makes mid-period Raymond Carver’s seem positively baroque. But it effectively conveys the narrator’s state of mind.” —Airmail

“There’s a moving coming-of-age family story here . . . Smith definitely has something; and his next novel, already announced, is called The Complete, which sounds like a promise.” —The Guardian

“This novel is funny. Not witty or zany, but funny, actually funny . . . Smith’s narration is already asking to be read twice.” —Chicago Review of Books

“This original, clever story is brilliant on grief, madness, and creativity. It’s beautifully written, hilarious, and heartbreaking.” —The Daily Mail

“It’s a book about loss and the anxiety of the modern age, tinged with humor and deep insight that will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.” —Town & Country

“Smith’s picaresque first novel is told from the perspective of Gabriel, a writer struggling with numerous issues . . . a deeply gothic work that never quite settles the reader in a certain world as Gabriel’s foibles, ghostly visions, and uncertainties filter every moment. Written in short, clipped chapters and featuring uproarious dialogue (especially with Gabriel’s brother), this is a darkly comic and brilliantly unusual debut.” —Booklist

“[Smith’s] dialogue shines . . . Readers who appreciate the morbidly funny and the just plain morbid will find a lot to love in these pages. A weird and darkly funny novel from a writer to watch.” —Kirkus

“Messy with glitched realities and body horror, Brat breathes the same thrillingly claustrophobic air as Inland Empire and Ubik. It’s a skin-shedding ouroboros of grief and laughter, and the most brain-melting British debut I’ve read in ages.” —Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

“Gabriel Smith’s prose is like if Joan Didion and Shirley Jackson took Xanax and used the internet. Brat is a sharp, eerie, confident debut about grief, memory, art, and so much more. Smith is a major new talent.” —Jordan Castro, author of The Novelist
 
“Gabriel Smith’s jauntily creepy and hilarious tale of a grief-stalked scapegrace’s sloughing-off and regeneration of selves in the filial murk of a moldering homestead is a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for a new, quaking generation. Brat will unnerve and seduce you.” —Garielle Lutz, author of Worsted

“Gabriel Smith has written a truly unique and surprising book. He is the rarest thing: a distinctive stylist on the line and structure level. Brat is so strange and so funny. I laughed a lot while reading.” —Rachel Connolly, author of Lazy City