Some Hell, Patrick Nathan
Some Hell, Patrick Nathan
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Some Hell
A Novel

Author: Patrick Nathan

Narrator: Graham Halstead

Unabridged: 10 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/13/2018

Synopsis

A wrenching and layered debut novel about a gay teen’s coming-of-age in the aftermath of his father’s suicideMiddle school hasn’t been going well for Colin. His teenage sister teases him mercilessly, his autistic brother lashes out at him, and he has a crush on his best friend, Andy. But after the tragic night when his father commits suicide, none of that matters.Diane, Colin’s mother, seeks solace in therapy. Colin is awash in guilt, and casts about for someone to confide in: first his estranged grandfather, then a predatory science teacher. But nothing helps as much as the strange writing his father kept in a series of notebooks locked in his study. Colin looks for answers there―in fragments about disaster scenarios, the violence of snow, mustangs running wild in the west―but instead finds the writing infecting his worldview.Diane, meanwhile, has a miserable fling with a coworker, and leans more heavily on Colin for support as things go from bad to worse. But spring is unfolding, and a road trip to Los Angeles gives them a tantalizing glimpse of what the future might hold.In Some Hell, a debut novel of devastating intensity and aching, pointillistic detail, Patrick Nathan shows how unspeakable tragedy shapes a life and how imagination saves us from ourselves.

About Patrick Nathan

Patrick Nathan’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Gulf Coast, Boulevard, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. He lives in Minneapolis.

About Graham Halstead

Graham Halstead, an Earphones Award and Audie Award–winning narrator, is a professionally trained actor and voice artist. As an actor, he has worked internationally in Edinburgh and London, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His youthful, easy-flowing voice can be heard on television and radio voicing spots for Airborne and Allegra.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jenny

I wanted to love this book, and the fact that I didn't probably marks me as more of a romantic than I want to be. Nathan is a talented writer. Many a sentence struck me as brilliant. The phrase that stuck is, referring to the gay, teenaged protagonist, "his endless short life." But the truth is that......more

Goodreads review by Doug

You know you're in trouble when the author thanks someone in the acknowledgments for pointing out to him that his sixth draft was boring. Don't know how many more drafts there were before this reached publication, but I hate to break it to Nathan ... it's STILL pretty boring! To be fair, there are p......more

Goodreads review by Kelly_Hunsaker_reads

3.5 stars that could have been 5. I was warned! A booktuber I watch reviewed this book. He spoke in depth about how much he loved the first 2/3 or more of this book, and how the ending completely spoiled it. He was so vociferous. He was so angry. And yet he was also generous and complimentary. Despit......more

Quotes

“A very different literary thriller, one in which the mystery is not who killed the victim but how those who kill might live with what they’ve done…A canny and terrifying moral fable about our new and old American ways of both being together and missing each other.” New York Times Book Review

“A heartbreaker of a book, Patrick Nathan’s debut novel captures the hell of adolescence under particularly dire circumstances.” Esquire

“Each sentence of this dark Bildungsroman—obsessed with the intertwined logics of desire, disaster, and death—kept me enthralled.” Literary Hub

“Skillful, beautifully written…Nathan’s first novel is beautifully done and promises to linger in the reader’s memory.” Booklist (starred review)

“Intoxicating…All-consuming…A magnetic first novel combining wit, sex, and apocalyptic reverie.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The full-heartedness in Colin’s capacity for hope and love even amidst his crumbling surroundings is what makes all of the weight of this book bearable. That sliver of hope is what allows us to see this story through to the end, with the idea that maybe even those in the worst of circumstances one can find something like peace.” PopMatters

“Readers will find moments of beauty in the rawness of grief’s confusions and yearning.” Publishers Weekly

“This gorgeous, shape-shifting novel dares to address the burden of becoming. Nathan is a true talent, evoking the intensity of adolescence and the gut-punch we feel when reality comes bearing down on us.” Garrard Connely, author of Boy Erased

“Some Hell is an enthralling family saga that layers the slapstick giddiness of adolescence and sexual questing with a seething darkness. This is exactly the recipe for growing up with trauma.” David Treuer, author of Prudence

“Startlingly propulsive, utterly enveloping, and a genuine revelation.” Matthew Specktor, author of American Dream Machine

Awards

  • Literary Hub Pick
  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
  • Lambda Literary Award
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