Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind

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What to expect

‘Trippy, incisive, riotously funny’ ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN

‘[An] insightfully nightmarish parable ' HALLE BUTLER

'A stunner’ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH

‘Luminous … as if George Saunders infiltrated the Severance writers’ room’ WASHINGTON POST

A work place novel. A love story. A dream you can’t wake from…

Jonathan Abernathy is a loser. Unemployed and behind on his student loan repayments, the only thing Abernathy has in abundance is debt.

When a secretive government loan forgiveness programme offers him a job he can literally do in his sleep, Abernathy thinks he’s found his big break. Hired as a dream auditor, he finds himself entering the dreams of white-collar workers to flag their anxieties for removal at night so they'll be more productive in the day. If Abernathy can at least appear competent, might he have a chance at a new life?

As Abernathy tries to find his footing in this new gig, reality and morality begin to warp around him. Soon, the lines between life and work, right and wrong, and even sleep and consciousness, have blurred and Abernathy begins to wonder just what he might have signed away…

Wildly imaginative, laced with black humour and full of close-to-the-bone truths, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is the cult workplace novel that’s like nothing else you've read before.

‘Surrealist … A scathing critique of capitalism’ TIME

'Imagine the movie Inception, but populated by the middle-management workers in David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs' NEW YORK TIMES

'An excitingly original writer, inventing much needed and killingly funny satires for contemporary work and dreams of success' HOLLY PESTER

‘A revelation’ HILARY LEICHTER

‘An original mind brimming over with invention’ BEN MARCUS

‘An exuberant, poignant, freewheeling debut … very funny’ JEFF VANDERMEER

‘The spiritual sibling of Severance, but creepier’ LITERARY HUB

Critics Review

  • ‘McGhee brilliantly articulates the neuroses of a young person trying to survive in a system rigged against him … A magical-realist office drama infused with millennial anomie, and McGhee’s canny, often bittersweetly hilarious prose reads as if George Saunders infiltrated the Severance writers’ room’ Washington Post

    ‘
    Imagine the movie Inception, but populated by the middle-management workers in David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs
    ‘ New York Times

    ‘Fearlessly inventive and exquisitely poised … trippy, incisive, and, most importantly, riotously funny’ Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

    ‘An original mind brimming over with invention and comic ferocity’ Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet

    ‘An excitingly original writer, inventing much needed and killingly funny satires for contemporary work and dreams of success’ Holly Pester, author of The Lodgers

    ‘Precision, humour, heart … a stunner’ Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars

    ‘[An] insightfully nightmarish parable of the pervasive ravages of debt’ Halle Butler, author of The New Me

    ‘An exuberant, poignant, freewheeling debut’ Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation

    ‘Funny, freaky, intellectually bold and always from the heart’ Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

    ‘A revelation … There’s nothing like it, awake or asleep’ Hilary Leichter, author of Temporary

    ‘The rare novel that truly feels like it could’ve only been written by a single brilliant mind’ Jean Kyoung Frazier author of Pizza Girl

    ‘A marvellous chronicler of the fantastic, the perverse, and the sublime’ Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog

    ‘Debt can take on a life of it’s own, but when it’s really good – like Jonathan Abernathy – so can art’ Electric Lit

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