The Award - by Matthew Pearl (Hardcover)

About the Book

"David Trent is an aspiring novelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, trying to navigate his ambitions in a place that has writers around every corner. He lives in an apartment above a Very Famous Author named Silas Hale who, beneath his celebrated image, is a bombastic, vindictive monster who refuses to allow his new neighbor even to make eye contact with him--until young David wins a prestigious award for his new book. Suddenly Silas is interested--if intensely spiteful. But soon, the administrator of the award comes to David with alarming news, forcing the writer into a desperate set of choices"--

Book Synopsis

"The Award begins as a wryly funny satire of thwarted literary ambition, but it quickly evolves into something darker and more disturbing. Matthew Pearl's addictive and propulsive novel has the twisted nightmare logic of a Patricia Highsmith thriller."--Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Tracy Flick Can't Win and Mrs. Fletcher

"A propulsive and gripping novel about the literary world, ambition, deception and murder and the twisted corner where they all intersect. Matthew Pearl grabs you from the first sentence and doesn't let go."--Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Night We Lost Him

The author of Save Our Souls and The Dante Club makes his eagerly awaited return to fiction with this irreverent and propulsive novel about a young writer trying to make his way through a cutthroat literary scene that turns deadly.

David Trent is an aspiring novelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, trying to navigate his ambitions in a place that has writers around every corner.

He lives in an apartment above a Very Famous Author named Silas Hale who, beneath his celebrated image, is a bombastic, vindictive monster who refuses to allow his new neighbor even to make eye contact with him.

Until young David wins a prestigious award for his new book.

Suddenly Silas is interested--if intensely spiteful.

But soon, the administrator of the award comes to David with alarming news, forcing the writer into a desperate set of choices.

Fate intervenes--with shocking consequences. . . .

With the wit and psychological wisdom of The Plot and The Winner, The Award is a timely, razor-sharp, and unputdownable novel about writing groups, publishing, ambition, human foibles, and the dangerous things we will do to get ahead.

Review Quotes

"Pearl revels in wickedness, presenting a literary world in which a successful writer's haughtiness is both encouraged and rewarded." ⎯ The New Yorker
"[A] cleverly plotted literary satire . . . . the narrative, which melds the improbability of farce with a claustrophobic horror reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, grips the readers and never lets go."-- The Boston Globe
"With cheek and wit, Pearl delivers a serpentine-coiled plot and convincing characters that make this novel hard to put down." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Through clever twists, including a mistaken award with devastating consequences, Pearl brings to life a character whose desperation for success is dangerously palpable. The Award also delivers sardonic humor . . . Pearl creates a thrilling, introspective, entertaining world." - Booklist
"A publishing-industry satire in the vein of Andrew Lipstein's Last Resort, The Award takes a dim view of its characters' ambitions. Every bad and selfish choice made by the protagonist just adds to the pleasure of it." ⎯ Vulture
"Matthew Pearl, the much-loved writer of The Dante Club, among many other books, has given us in this new novel a world of writers and intrigue . . . . This is a book that feels, on the surface, like it's about the fault in our literary stars but is actually ⎯ to borrow another writer's famous phrasing ⎯ in ourselves." ⎯ Pittsburgh Post Gazette
"The Award begins as a wryly funny satire of thwarted literary ambition, but it quickly evolves into something darker and more disturbing. Matthew Pearl's addictive and propulsive novel has the twisted nightmare logic of a Patricia Highsmith thriller."
- Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Tracy Flick Can't Win and Mrs. Fletcher
"The Award is a propulsive and gripping novel about the literary world, ambition, deception and murder and the twisted corner where they all intersect. Matthew Pearl grabs you from the first sentence and doesn't let go." - Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Night We Lost Him
"A darkly entertaining satire set in present-day Cambridge, Mass., The Award by Matthew Pearl tells the story of an unscrupulous writer's improbable rise to the upper echelons of literary society. It is a superb caricature of a ruthlessly ambitious young man who will stop at nothing, even murder, to claw his way to the top . . . . Marvelously twisted." - Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"Deviously entertaining." - Kirkus Reviews
"Pearl takes literary ambition to macabre extremes in this gleefully wicked satire...Readers won't be able to resist this." - Publishers Weekly
"Pearl takes a knife to the publishing industry and its much-ballyhooed literary prizes, offering a keen-eyed portrait of ambition, jealousy, and desperation." - The Millions
"A thriller where catharsis and darkness go hand in hand in the rat race that is literary ambition." - Harvard Magazine
"Ooh, you're going to want to get your hands on The Award and curl up with it . . . . It starts out seeming like just another one of those lightly parodic novels with a protagonist who's a thwarted writer--but twist! It's actually a Highsmithian work of psychological suspense and murder." ⎯ New York, Dinner Party newsletter
"Matthew Pearl's gratifying and unapologetically cynical novel, The Award, turns a spotlight on the world of American publishing and rotates it . . . . Suffice it to say that though the literary world may have 'no morality in it, ' as a character laments, one can't deny the virtues of a novel this good."-- BookPage
"May remind readers of Percival Everett's novel Erasure . . . . [Pearl's] evocation of the vicious, condescending Hale . . . is particularly amusing.," ⎯ The Minnesota Star Tribune
"Satire and mystery swirl with arrogance, the creative process and unchecked ambition in Matthew Pearl's amusing and realistic The Award. Pearl turns a delightfully poisoned pen toward writers and the writing life." ⎯ Sun Sentinel
"In Matthew Pearl's brilliant and cunning new novel, The Award, David Trent represents anyone out there who has ever wanted something for as long as they could remember only to be constantly disappointed . . . The Award is perhaps the most devilishly scathing indictment of the publishing industry that I have ever read. Captured in the guise of a psychological thriller, the plight and journey that David Trent takes is truly edge-of-your seat suspenseful. In the hands of Matthew Pearl, it becomes a scandalous read that is memorable and well worth devouring." ⎯ Bookreporter
"A fascinating picture of frontier Kentucky. . . . The story of Jemima's abduction, an exciting and revealing episode in the history of America's westward expansion, deserves to be retold. To his credit, Pearl resists oversimplifying a history that has been too often presented as a frontier romance, showing us that it is as much about the women, children and Native Americans who played a part in it as the famous men who ensured it would be remembered." - New York Times Book Review on The Taking of Jemima Boone