{"product_id":"afternoon-hours-of-a-hermit-a-novel-isbn-9780063435063","title":"Afternoon Hours of a Hermit: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA darkly funny and profoundly moving new novel by award-winning author Patrick Cottrell.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAnd who did I think I was, trying to teach the troubled youth how to write?...\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eI would say I was Dan Moran, a Korean adoptee, single, approaching forty, once plain-in-appearance as a woman, now ugly as a man, that’s who or what I thought I was. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMost importantly, I was no longer useless, I was a writer.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive years after the death of his youngest brother, Dan Moran is now the published trans author of the autofictional novel \u003cem\u003eSorry to Disrupt the Peace\u003c\/em\u003e. He is teaching fiction in Brooklyn and working on his next book–a psychological thriller–when a mysterious envelope arrives for him in the mail. Addressed to the wrong name, it includes a childhood photo of his deceased brother. But who would send such a thing, and why?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgainst his better judgment, Dan returns to his childhood home on the eve of his brother’s memorial dinner. His estranged family is surprised to see him, but he ignores them. He drives around in his brother’s Honda Accord, believing he is a detective. He searches for a constellation of unidentified women who may have been involved with his brother, all while being mistaken for another man. He hopes his investigation will reveal exactly who he was to his brother, but in a series of unsettling and destabilizing encounters, what he discovers is the irrevocable distance between who we are and how we are perceived.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit\u003c\/em\u003e is Patrick Cottrell’s long-awaited second novel—an existential noir, an absurd comedy, a complex character study, and a heartbreaking inquiry into the paradox of identity, memory, and the very enterprise of writing fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit\u003c\/i\u003e is prescient and captivating, hilarious and horrifying.\u003cbr\u003eA book that enchants and entices and enrages is a rare thing; Patrick Cottrell has once\u003cbr\u003eagain solidified his prose as knowing, and generous, and vicious, and tender.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBryan Washington, author of Palaver, National Book Award finalist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“While reading \u003ci\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit\u003c\/i\u003e, I was rapt, jolted, and thrilled.\u003cbr\u003eI lost count of how many times I paused to reread a line, astonished by its precision, truth,\u003cbr\u003eand hilarity. I have fallen irrevocably in love with this novel; I want to write it a song.\u003cbr\u003eRead this book if you want to feel more alive.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eR. O. Kwon, nationally bestselling author of Exhibit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A rain-soaked neo-noir and a comedy of manners, a philosophical disquisition,\u003cbr\u003eand a wrenching exploration of grief, Patrick Cottrell’s \u003ci\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eis the work of an extraordinarily gifted writer. It is one of the most\u003cbr\u003esingular and thrilling novels I have read in years.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKatie Kitamura, author of Audition, shortlisted for the Booker Prize\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A hilarious and heart-wrenching whodunit where the central question is not who\u003cbr\u003ecommitted murder but what, exactly, is dead. With precise and crystalline prose,\u003cbr\u003ePatrick Cottrell deploys the visual and linguistic vocabulary of a noir to gripping effect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit\u003c\/i\u003e is a brilliant, comedy-laden meditation\u003cbr\u003eon the liquid, hard-to-capture qualities of grief.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRita Bullwinkel, author of Headshot, Pulitzer Prize finalist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Patrick Cottrell writes prose that is so clean, resonant, and pitch-perfect, it’s like\u003cbr\u003elistening to someone play the cello in a completely silent music hall. Somehow it is also\u003cbr\u003ea virtuosic work of comedy. It is not an overstatement to say that\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfternoon Hours of a Hermit \u003c\/i\u003eis a novel of genius.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmina Cain, author of Indelicacy, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48587977588965,"sku":"NP9780063435063","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063435063.jpg?v=1773959714","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/afternoon-hours-of-a-hermit-a-novel-isbn-9780063435063","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}