Publishers Weekly
06/17/2024
Newman debuts with a witty and endearing mosaic novel centered on a young gay man’s desperate quest to avoid embarrassment. Natwest, 23, who’s nicknamed after the U.K. bank, is set to leave his mother’s house for his delayed start to university, but not before he tracks down the large dildo that was scheduled for delivery the day prior (“Humiliation, which was lurking around the corner of his life at all times, was now very much on his doorstep”). It turns out the package was mistakenly picked up by his dentist, Dr. Hung. As Natwest tries to claim the package from Hung’s office, where his mother works as a nurse, he encounters people whose stories Newman continues in chapters devoted to their perspectives. Among them are Mishaal, a film student turned imam who secretly watches classic movies with a Christian reverend; Lily, a crying teen Natwest comforts at a bus stop, who’s being extorted by someone she met online and sent nude photos to; and Hung, an amateur painter fixated on gaping mouths. The situations are enjoyably farcical, but there’s also depth to them, as Newman delves into his characters’ hidden passions and shows how they grapple with their self-defeating choices. This raucous adventure is great fun. Agent: Charlie Brotherstone, Aevitas U.K. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
It’s impossible not to be charmed by this big-hearted story. . . an exciting debut from an author whose assuredness and polish could easily be mistaken for that of an old pro.” —Bustle
“Sometimes what you really need is a full-on caper. . . the novel collects a series of idiosyncratic characters, whose lives and loves and thoughts about art build to a hilarious cacophony not unlike our own.” —Lithub’s Most Anticipated List 2024
“A bawdy tale of the unseriousness of existence and the impossibility of knowing our neighbors. . . .How to Leave the House is fiction as friction, designed for discomfort. This is a novel of dichotomies that beg to be challenged, with psychological spaces that desperately need transparency but are inherently, tragically closed off to each other.” —Book Page
“Raucous. . . smart and funny, Newman’s debut is a refreshing take on juvenilia and the enduring potency of art discourse.” —Kirkus
“Newman debuts with a witty and endearing mosaic novel…The situations are enjoyably farcical, but there’s also depth to them, as Newman delves into his characters’ hidden passions and shows how they grapple with their self-defeating choices. This raucous adventure is great fun.” —Publishers Weekly
“Nathan Newman’s How to Leave the House is a brilliant exploration of the many absurd and human ways that our lives intersect. Their sharp, honest prose skillfully reveals the vulnerability and desire coursing through the center of characters. This is the rare novel that is just as compassionate as it is funny, as engaging as it is smart.” —Isle McElroy, author of People Collide
"How to Leave the House is gobby, barbed, and garrulous; a novel that takes swings, with swagger." —Eley Williams, author of The Liar's Dictionary
"Most books that claim to be funny aren’t actually all that funny. How to Leave the House is a rare exception – genuinely hilarious, utterly obnoxious, impressively daring." —Keiran Goddard, author of Hourglass
"Witty, sharply observed and truly original." —Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies
“A wild and funny ride through modern life.” —The Financial Times
Library Journal
07/01/2024
DEBUT Natwest is a 23-year-old living with his mother in a small town in England. Tomorrow he will leave for university, but today he goes to the post office for a package he is anxious to retrieve. There he encounters Dr. Hung, his dentist, who is also attempting to retrieve a package that he too has been anxiously awaiting. The two men's parcels are mixed up, and from there, the story becomes an Odyssean quest as Natwest attempts to track down his package before anyone discovers what's in it. The story is mildly humorous but ultimately serious, as Natwest grapples with his bisexuality, his origins (he never knew his father), and his complicated relationship with his mother. In places, Newman's technique approaches the experimental—as the point of view shifts from one character to another, the story begins again from this new point of view; at one point, Newman steps in with an "author's note" to apprise readers of an image that was expurgated by the publisher. VERDICT Toward the novel's end, Natwest asks, "How many ways could this go?" Newman answers Natwest's question by providing two different endings, one cheerful, the other not. Readers will have to decide which ending is the real one, or if they both hold truth.—Michael F. Russo
