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A hearty welcome (back) to the Brattle Agency family to Professor Minsoo Kang of the University of Missouri at Saint Louis. Minsoo’s new fantasy novel is The Melancholy of Untold History is due in the spring of 2024 from Morrow. The Brattle Agency is delighted to represent this fine writer to the trade. Please inquire.
“The Cold Hard Light is a stark, Dostoyevskian tale of obsession and the myriad of ways in which hatred corrupts the soul and, bit by bit, chisels away at our humanity. “H” is a contemporary American grotesque, a modern-day Raskolnikov, shaped and fueled by bigotry, his own failings, and the very “white” sense of what he is owed in the world and what he believes others have taken from him. Twisted into a paranoid shell of a man, and, like Raskolnikov, obsessed and subsumed by his own hatred and shame, “H” ultimately exists within a prison all of his own making.”
— Thomas O’Malley is the author of This Magnificent Desolation and, with Douglas Graham Purdy, the Boston Noirs, Serpents in the Cold, and We Were King
“Christopher Amenta has done something remarkable with The Cold Hard Light: he’s told a crime story that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve heard it all before; a Boston story that actually feels like Boston, and a revenge thriller that affords the hunter, the hunted, and all the tragedies in between the courtesy of a beating heart. Quite a debut.”
— Howard Bryant, author of Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston
"Resonating with a dark disturbing vision, The Cold Hard Light is an ambitious novel. The story, Andrew Harrison's psychological struggle, is told with insights and nuances. An impressive accomplishment."
— Ha Jin, author of A Song Everlasting and Waiting
Mr. Beethoven has already been the recipient of a PW “Starred” review that you can find here, a “Starred” Kirkus review, as well as a rave review from Michael Patrick Brady in the Boston Globe this past Sunday. Well deserved, and certainly not the last!
Fists Made Loud is Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff crossed with Andre Dubus' story "Killings" from Finding a Girl in America mixed with an episode of The Wire...of a sort.
Set in present day Boston, Fists Made Loud explores the drama of modern American urban life, in which the very rich are catered to by the poor, in which race relations flare, where guns are prevalent and considered toys, and where the desire to blame others trumps the need to understand them. These forces and more weigh upon the characters in this short, single-narrative novel, hurtling them towards an irrevocable conclusion.
Today, the Brattle Agency welcomes Carlos Bauer to our client list. Mr. Bauer is an accomplished writer , scholar, and translator. We are lucky to have him on our list and are currently submitting his first novel Under the Fake Mediterranean Sun for consideration.
From the publisher Henningham Family Press:
What if Beethoven had travelled to the United States in their infancy, taking up his commission to write a Biblical oratorio for Boston's Handel and Haydn Society?
'In Griffiths' latest novel... the composer brings his time, his temperament and his sense of democracy to us. But he can’t possibly fit in. The challenge of Beethoven 250 will be to retain a Beethoven who is among us but refuses to fit in.'
- Mark Swed, Los Angeles TimesAs Beethoven wrestles with his muse, and his librettist, he comes to rely on two women. Thankful, who conducts his conversations using Martha's Vineyard sign language, and a kindred spirit: the widow, Mrs. Hill. Meanwhile Boston waits in anxious expectation of a first performance the composer will never hear.
Variously admonishing the amateur music society and laughing in the company of his hosts' children, the immortal composer is brought back to the fullness of life.
Griffiths invents only what is strictly possible. His historiography weaves through the text in counterpoint, making this also a story about the fragility of the past and the remaining traces of the man: Mr. Beethoven.
Author Luke Salisbury discussed why he feels teachers should discuss Confederate monuments, his belief the monuments should not be located on government property, and evidence of a form of post traumatic stress disorder affecting Civil War soldiers.
From Foreword:
The effects of the war on families at home are clear, too. Those who leave to fight never return the same, and the North is seen mourning for its lost innocence just as the South does. The book perfectly captures the pitch of the national upheaval and its emotional traumas.Beautifully written, No Common War ranks as one of the best war novels in decades.
From Kirkus:
Author Luke Salisbury tells a compelling story about his ancestor Moreau, and it's "as true as I can make it." Slavery is America's original sin, and the Salisbury brothers are among so many who pay penance.An engrossing, well-told story by a writer with a unique perspective.
Brattle Agency author Joanna Luloff has an essay on LitHub today about the thorny intellectual problem of "relatability" in fictive narratives. Her debut novel Remind Me Again What Happened will be published on Tuesday the 26th by Algonquin Books.
It is with great sadness that the Brattle Agency reports that our author Joan Chase has died. Bryan Marquard of the Boston Globe has written a lovely obituary/appreciation which you can find below.
A memorial service will be announced for Ms. Chase, who in addition to her husband leaves a son, Christopher of Pittsburgh; a daughter, Melissa Grabau of Sacramento; a brother, Larry Strausbaugh of Portland, Ore.; a sister, Linda Kaye Moore of Denver; and two granddaughters.
Any condolences for the family may be sent to the Brattle Agency at christopher.vyce@thebrattleagency.com and will be forwarded. Thank you.