‘Full of dark, deadpan humour, Brat<\/i> is a raucous story of the messy, messed-up business of living, dying and having a family.’ Financial Times<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0‘<\/b>A moving coming-of-age family story’ Observer <\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
\u00c2\u00a0‘Iconic’, Radio 1<\/p>\n
I was in the waiting room. Then I was in the examination
room.<\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
Gabriel’s skin is falling off.
\u00c2\u00a0
His dad is dead.
\u00c2\u00a0
He owes his editor a novel.
\u00c2\u00a0
His girlfriend won’t answer his calls.
\u00c2\u00a0
Tasked by his horribly well-adjusted brother with clearing out the family home for sale, Gabriel’s sanity quickly begins to unravel. His parents’ old manuscripts appear to change each time he reads them. A bizarre home video hints at long-buried secrets. And there’s a hideous man in the garden.<\/p>\n
Disquieting and hilarious, taut yet lyrical, blisteringly-paced but formally inventive,\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>is a mediation on grief, art and love that will leave you altered, breathless and desperate for more.\u00c2\u00a0
\u00c2\u00a0
From a stunningly original new talent, this is a debut novel unlike anything you have read before.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
‘This original, clever story is brilliant on grief, madness and creativity. It’s beautifully written, hilarious and heart-breaking. I raced through it.’ Daily Mail<\/p>\n
?<\/i><\/b>‘For readers looking for something that will grip you from start to finish,\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>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<\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
‘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<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
‘[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.’\u00c2\u00a0Kirkus<\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
‘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<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
‘Gabriel Smith has written a truly unique and surprising book. He is the rarest thing: a distinctive stylist on the line and structure level.\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0is so strange and so funny. I laughed a lot while reading.’\u00c2\u00a0Rachel Connolly, author of\u00c2\u00a0Lazy City<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
‘Messy with glitched realities and body horror,\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0breathes the same thrillingly claustrophobic air as\u00c2\u00a0Inland Empire\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Ubik. It’s a skin-shedding ouroboros of grief and laughter, and the most brain-melting British debut I’ve read in ages.’\u00c2\u00a0Ed Park, author of\u00c2\u00a0Same Bed Different Dreams<\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
‘Gabriel Smith’s prose is like if Joan Didion and Shirley Jackson took Xanax and used the internet.\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0is a sharp, eerie, confident debut about grief, memory, art, and so much more. Smith is a major new talent.’\u00c2\u00a0Jordan Castro, author of\u00c2\u00a0The Novelist<\/i><\/b>
\u00c2\u00a0
‘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\u00c2\u00a0Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man\u00c2\u00a0for a new, quaking generation.\u00c2\u00a0Brat\u00c2\u00a0will unnerve and seduce you.’\u00c2\u00a0Garielle Lutz, author of Worsted<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
‘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.’\u00c2\u00a0Booklist<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n
‘[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.’\u00c2\u00a0Kirkus<\/b><\/i>
\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gabriel’s skin is falling off. His dad is dead. He owes his editor a novel. His girlfriend won’t answer his calls. Tasked by his horribly well-adjusted brother with clearing out the family home for sale, Gabriel’s sanity quickly begins to unravel. His parents’ old manuscripts appear to change each time he reads them. A bizarre home video hints at long-buried secrets. And there’s a hideous man in the garden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[68],"product_tag":[26949,27718,26934,26896,27513,28702,27041,26830,26897],"class_list":{"0":"post-107664","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","5":"product_cat-general-fiction","6":"product_tag-classic-fiction","7":"product_tag-comic-humorous-fantasy","8":"product_tag-contemporary-horror","9":"product_tag-fiction-general-literary","10":"product_tag-fiction-mashup","11":"product_tag-fiction-pastiche","12":"product_tag-horror-supernatural-fiction","13":"product_tag-modern-contemporary-fiction","14":"product_tag-satirical-fiction-parodies","15":"pa_book_author-smith-gabriel","16":"pa_cover-paperback","17":"pa_dewey-823-92-edition23","18":"pa_edition-paperback-original","19":"pa_imprint-scribner-uk","20":"pa_language-english","21":"pa_pages-8500","22":"pa_publisher-scribner-uk","23":"pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","25":"first","26":"onbackorder","27":"taxable","28":"shipping-taxable","29":"purchasable","30":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\n