{"product_id":"happy-bad-isbn-9781662603280","title":"Happy Bad","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Nolan is a skillful satirist, and one whose aim is extensive, wickedly funny and true.\"—\u003ci\u003eNew Orleans Times-Picayune\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A self-assured debut that is also a warning.\"—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Delaney Nolan has written a brutal, joyful, surprising, and gorgeous novel of human contradictions. It’s a stunner.\"—Julia Phillips, author of \u003ci\u003eBear\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDisappearing Earth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHernan Diaz meets Ottessa Moshfegh in this madcap road trip chronicle; a moving display of human connection in the face of violence and climate destruction from a remarkable new voice in fiction.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeatrice works at Twin Bridge, a chronically underfunded residential treatment center in near-future East Texas, teeming with enraged teenage girls on either too many or not enough drugs. On a normal day, it’s difficult for Beatrice and the other staff—Arda, Carmen, and Linda—to keep their cool in dust-blown Askewn. But when a heat wave triggers a massive, sustained blackout, Beatrice and the other staff and residents must evacuate. Facing police brutality, sweltering heat, panicked evacuees, the girls’ mounting withdrawal, and the consequences of her own lies, they search for a route out of the blackout zone. A catastrophe novel by turns tender and hilarious, fueled by a low-simmering political rage, \u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e is a rocket arrived on Earth.\"Nolan is a skillful satirist, and one whose aim is extensive, wickedly funny and true. [ . . . ] In this cautionary parable, tomorrow’s climate emergencies, gonzo pharmaceuticals and fractured America feel an awfully lot like today’s. Despite finding a whole world of bad out there, Nolan leaves her readers, in the end, feeling maybe just a little bit happy.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rien Fertel, \u003ci\u003eNew Orleans Times-Picayune\/Louisiana Advocate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Nolan has accomplished an impressive feat, writing a novel with a clear eye toward the horrors that await us in the near future, but with the readability of a less weighty story. Some of this comes from the tight, well-paced plot, and some of it comes from careful wordsmithing, like the description of a polluted Louisiana sky as a 'psycho Easter palette.' I cannot recall the last work of climate fiction that made the crisis feel quite so imminent as \u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Michael Thomas Gaffney, \u003ci\u003eSouthern Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"It’s an emotionally harrowing novel, and Nolan excels at capturing the sense of unreality and growing unease at the continued loss of societal knowns. But the novel is also driven by a sense of anger at the injustices of a society that willingly permits the exploitation of captive populations for profit, and which casually tosses aside or buries the behaviorally inconvenient, people who require functioning social, economic, and supply structures in order to live satisfying and safe lives.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jeremy Brett,\u003ci\u003e Ancillary Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e . . . feels thoroughly contemporary while also grappling with countless Big Ideas. It’s sneaky like that . . . The near future it depicts is thoroughly unsettling, but Nolan leaves space within it for notes of grace.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Tobias Carroll, \u003ci\u003eOn The Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e confronts a raised fistful of the most urgent and existential issues of our hour, presenting by force of Nolan’s expansive imagination one detailed and layered vector of possible futures—the one perhaps most likely given the current inattention and inaction on climate. Yet for all of the frequently stunning political insights Nolan offers up on nearly every page, the shining star of this exciting and entertaining work of climate fiction is the writing itself.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Frances Madeson, \u003ci\u003eDeceleration\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“While the subject matter is as serious as can be, Nolan leavens the novel with gallows humor . . . The darkness of this excellent novel is amplified by how terrifyingly plausible it all is. A self-assured debut that is also a warning.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This glimpse into a terrifyingly plausible future smuggles tenderness amid the horrors.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Buckle up and get ready for a ride. Nolan is wickedly hilarious and is bold and uncompromising in presenting how urgent we need to act on the climate.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Adam Vitcavage, \u003ci\u003eDebutiful\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Impressive . . . Nolan weaves together apocalyptic worldbuilding, flashbacks to Beatrice's own adolescence, and backwater jailhouse monotony reminiscent of Ottessa Moshfegh's \u003ci\u003eEileen\u003c\/i\u003e before shifting into another classic genre: road novel.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Steven Melendez, \u003ci\u003eAntigravity Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Beatrice’s voice-wry, tender, unflinching-lights the dark. For readers who like road narratives with heart and gallows humor; I couldn’t look away.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Victoria Wood,\u003ci\u003e BiblioLifestyle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An exhilarating, dynamic, addictive debut, Delaney Nolan's \u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e is a hell of a book.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJami Attenberg, author of \u003ci\u003eA Reason to See You Again\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Delaney Nolan's breathtaking, sharply crafted debut announces the arrival of an important new writer. The characters who populate these pages are unforgettable. \u003ci\u003eHappy Bad \u003c\/i\u003ewill stand the test of time, but it's also exactly the kind of book we need in our troubled times.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJamel Brinkley, author of \u003ci\u003eA Lucky Man\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWitness\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e shows the too-near future of our nightmares: climate disastrous, opportunities few, food altered, brains manipulated. But this book also gives us the best we can dream of: people who look out for each other, communities who take care. Delaney Nolan has written a brutal, joyful, surprising, and gorgeous novel of human contradictions. It’s a stunner.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJulia Phillips, author of \u003ci\u003eBear \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eDisappearing Earth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is a preternaturally good novel by a writer who can see the future. Not the 'thing that will happen if we don't change course' but the future that has already crept up on us—the slow apocalypse, the rising water, the burned-out grid. In addition to being a pitch-perfect description of the consequences of capital's love affair with oil, \u003ci\u003eHappy Bad\u003c\/i\u003e is a riotously well-written, weirdly fun nail-biter of a story—and a poignant defense of human life, however grimy the circumstances.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLydia Kiesling, author of \u003ci\u003eMobility\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What a writer Delaney Nolan is. Every sentence of Happy Bad hums electric. Nolan has written an all-too-real future, hot and drug-addled, and every page will surprise you, delight you, devastate you. It is rare to find a book at once as imaginative and true, as horrifying and hopeful, as this brilliant debut. A major talent, Nolan doesn't shy away from America's biggest problems; she takes them on with wit, humor, and compassion.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMatthew Salesses, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sense of Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eDelaney Nolan received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Rona Jaffe fellow. She has since received a Pushcart Prize, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a Fulbright Fellowship in fiction; her fiction has appeared in \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndiana Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOxford American\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTin House\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTriQuarterly\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere, and has been adapted into a radio play and a short film. Her work has been chosen as a notable for Best American Essays and translated into Arabic, Bulgarian, Italian, and Polish. Based in New Orleans, she has also received recognition for her reporting in \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Intercept\u003c\/i\u003e, BBC, \u003ci\u003eAl Jazeera\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMother Jones\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere.","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233214574821,"sku":"NP9781662603280","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662603280.jpg?v=1767728682","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/happy-bad-isbn-9781662603280","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}