The Nix

From 1960s Chicago to wartime Norway, an epic family saga of mystery and secrets in a divided America

'The best new writer of fiction in America. The best.' - John Irving

Nathan Hill's brilliant debut, The Nix, journeys from the rural Midwest of the 1960s, to New York City during Occupy Wall Street; from Chicago in 1968, to wartime Norway: home of the mysterious Nix.

Meet Samuel: stalled writer, bored teacher at a local college, obsessive player of online video games. He hasn't seen his mother, Faye, in decades, not since she abandoned her family when he was a boy. Now she has suddenly reappeared, having committed an absurd politically motivated crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the Internet, and inflames a divided America. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she's facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel's help.

As Samuel begins to excavate his mother's, and his country's, history, he will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about her - a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she has kept hidden from the world.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Alarmingly good . . . both a Great American Novel as well as a great American novel... aches with all-new relevance.

A superb debut novel . . . could well be the most ambitious novel of the year... It seems like Hill is a writer who can do pretty much what he wants.

Compulsive and crazily entertaining (Anthony Quinn)

Impressive that a debutant, Nathan Hill, with his scintillating The Nix has given us a character who comes close to out-Trumping Trump . . . Just one of the many pleasures of this engaging story of a mother and son whose private travails become front-page news. (New Year Highlights)

The best thing a reviewer can do when faced with a novel of this calibre and breadth is to urge you to read it for yourselves – especially if your taste is for deeply engaged and engaging contemporary American prose fiction of real quality and verve. (Ed Docx)

The best new writer of fiction in America. The best. (John Irving)

We're in the presence of a major new comic novelist . . . a brilliant, endearing writer . . . Readers . . . will be dazzled.

I got a big kick out of Nathan Hill's impressive first novel, The Nix (Picador), out in the UK next year. Hill's zeitgeisty portrayals of video game addiction and customer-oriented university education are brilliant. (Lionel Shriver, 'Books of the Year 2016')

Hill has so much talent to burn that he can pull off just about any style, imagine himself into any person and convincingly portray any place or time. The Nix is hugely entertaining and unfailingly smart, and the author seems incapable of writing a pedestrian sentence or spinning a boring story

There is an accidental topicality in Hill's debut, about an estranged mother and son whose fates hinge on two mirror-image political events - the Democratic Convention of 1968 and the Republican Convention of 2004. But beyond that hook lies a high-risk, high-reward playfulness with structure and tone: comic set pieces, digressions into myth, and formal larks that call to mind Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad.

It broke my heart, this book. Time after time. It made me laugh just as often. I loved it on the first page as powerfully as I did on the last . . . Nathan Hill? . . . He's gonna be famous. (National Public Radio)

Nathan Hill Is Compared to John Irving. Irving Compares Him to Dickens.

This is a book to get one excited not only about Hill and his future as a novelist, but also about the power of writing to blot out background-noise banality and vault us forward into the new and wondrous.

Hill skillfully blends humor and darkness, imagery and observation. He also excels at describing technology, addition, cultural milestones, and childhood ordeals. Cameos by [the famous] add heart and perspective to this rich, lively take on American social conflict, real and invented, over the last half-century.

This guy has chops (Jay McInerney)

The Nix comes alive with outstanding narration

I was pleasantly surprised by the interpretation of Ari Fliakos for the incredibly complex novel by Nathan Hill.

He managed to separate each character in such a distinctive manner, I was never confused - which would be easy in an audiobook with over 20 hours of duration - and was in constant awe.

I highly recommend this novel/audiobook for anyone interested in politics, entertainment and broken relationships - it does draw some pretty realistic parallels to the current political scene in the United States.

A fantastic debut indeed from Mr. Hill.

And I'm definitely checking out other books narrated by Mr. Fliakos.

Brilliant heart-breaking eloquence

Brilliant in every way. Worth every minute... A sprawling American novel - long but luscious - beautiful, extravagant and elegant. The theme: “Seeing ourselves clearly is the project of a lifetime.” Recommend.👍🏻👍🏻

Best story I've listened to in years

Every part of this story is perfect. The characters intriguing, the plotline compelling, the resolution satisfying and above everything else, it tastes like the truth.

21 hours just flew by!

Engrossing story and outstanding narration. My interest never wandered and I couldn't believe how time had flown once I finished it.

Wow this book will stay with me forever!

So very beautiful. Such marvelous complicated characters. I loved every minute and I'll definitely listen to it again as there are so many quotable pieces.