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Hell of a Book

WINNER of the National Book Award for Fiction

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Hell of a Book

By: Jason Mott
Narrated by: JD Jackson, Ronald Peet
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About this listen

 WINNER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2021
AN ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY 'MUST READ'
A TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK
* * * * *
Discover this astonishing work of fiction from award-winning, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Jason Mott.

'Powerful, timely and provocative' ABI DARÉ, author of GIRL WITH A LOUDING VOICE

'Jason Mott truly has written one hell of a book.' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of QUEENIE

This is a true story.
An author goes on a book tour for his new bestseller which, as people keep telling him, is one hell of a book.
This is a coming-of-age story.
One morning, he meets The Kid: a young Black boy who looks just like the one he keeps seeing on the news. And The Kid wants him to tell his story.
This is a sad story.
It's the story of a boy who spent most of his life trying to hide. And it may not be that different from the story of our author.
This is a love story.
But to find out why, you'll have to read this for yourself. African American Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Metaphysical & Visionary World Literature Comedy

Critic reviews

Brilliant and inventive ... You'll cry tears of laughter.
Beautiful and deeply moving . . . I'd go as far as to say it's an important book and everyone should read it.
For all its moments of levity, Mott has written a deadly serious story ... Hell of a Book offers a disturbing portrait of a nation that's been lying to itself all its years. In this way, the novel feels like a plea - intense, moving, urgent, and vital.
In a structurally and conceptually daring examination of art, fame, family and being black in America, Mott somehow manages the impossible trick of being playful, insightful and deeply moving, all at the same time. A highly original, inspired work that breaks new ground
How to possibly describe Mott's fourth novel without simply borrowing from its moniker? It is, after all, a hell of a book.
Hell of a Book more than lives up to its title. Playful, searching, raw and necessary, this writing, this voice, this novel twisted me up and turned me inside out, dazzled me, surprised me and moved me
A black author embarks on a cross-country book tour to promote his new book, but he's followed by a (possibly imaginary) child. The author's story is intertwined with the narrative of Soot, a young black boy living in a rural town. Mott has written a clever meditation on race and violence in America.
Maddening, disorienting and illuminating
Powerful, timely and provocative
Hell of a Book consistently proves itself to be more than the sum of its parts: a farce that provokes contemplation, a publishing parody that rings true; an honest and emotive meditation on systematic racial injustice and the myriad ways in which it breaks the human soul. Sharp, funny, evocative and never anything less than utterly poignant, Mott's novel chronicles the experience and cost of racism for black Americans with a clarity that is justifiably unsettling. Hell of a Book is distinctly American tale of racial trauma told with a dry, almost painful humour that scrapes at the reader's heart.
A twisty and startling narrative about the blurry lines between reality and fiction
Hilarious and moving, thoughtful and madcap . . . a hell of an accomplishment.
A dizzying yet dazzling exploration of exploration itself.
A profound exploration of love, friendship, and racial violence . . . A story that is at once a paean to familial love and friendship and a reckoning with racism and police violence. By turns playful and surprising and intimate, a moving meditation on being Black in America.
Stunning . . . Mott's poetic, cinematic novel tackles what it means to live in a country where Black people perpetually "live lives under the hanging sword of fear." Absurdist metafiction doesn't get much better.
All stars
Most relevant
This is one of the most poignant, the cleverest, funniest, most despairing, most witty books I've ever heard. It's brilliantly read. And it's powerful. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

What a listen

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It's not only a great story, imaginatively written and expertly structured, but the audio performance sparkles. The two narrators (performers?) bring the characters to life, giving voice to the two leads and others without ever slipping into mimicry. A fantastic performance of an excellent book.

It's a hell of an audio book too.

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This is a great book with excellent narration that I would really recommend, but there is some fairly emotional grief in there so maybe steer clear if that is going to be tough for you.

A great book (but not for the recently bereaved)

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It was very qell narrated and I enjoyed the way it was written but it was predictable for such a heavy storyline.

Predictable

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This is the most confused book I have possibly read. The two stars are for some good use of metaphors, and the voice acting is okay. The author tries far too hard to write some sort of meta book about his book. Tirelessly repetitive, no sense of direction. We selected it in our bookclub and average scores were below 5 out of 10. I couldn’t finish it, but others who did said it continued to disappoint.

A confused and resounding failure in our bookclub

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