Hollow

A brilliant and moving new novel about one man's crisis of faith from the critically acclaimed author of The Book of Harold

About the Author :
Owen Egerton is the author of two novels, The Book of Harold and Everyone Says That at the End of the World, and one story collection, How Best to Avoid Dying, all published to positive reviews. He s also the writer/director of the psychological horror film Follow. As a screenwriter Egerton has written for Fox, Disney, and Warner Brothers. His pieces have appeared in the Huffington Post and Salon. He co-wrote the creative writing guide, This Word Now with his wife, poet Jodi Egerton. Egerton also hosts public radio s The Write Up. "

Review :
In Hollow, Owen Egerton has fashioned a heartbreaking, tragic, yet funny novel about a man facing a tragedy that would be, in anyone else's hands, almost impossible to read, but that, in his hands, is a story difficult to put down. Manuel Gonzales, author of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories and The Regional Office is Under Attack! I was blown away by Owen Egerton s achingly beautiful, compulsively readable tale of a man who has lost his son, and himself. Hollow is filled to the brim with wonder and the sadness of being human, and I found myself laughing and tearing up on the same page. This is an adventure story with a tremendous heart. I couldn t put it down. Sarah Hepola author of Blackout: Remembering The Things I Drank To Forget I've long been a fan of Egerton's dark, probing, and often hilarious novels, but Hollow takes it to the next level. Egerton has crafted a beautifully strange modern take on the 'Book of Job' populated with haunting and hilarious characters worthy of Vonnegut's best. A meditation on grief and love, Hollow is simultaneously heart wrenching and laugh-out-loud funny. Amanda Eyre Ward, author of The Same Sky Owen Egerton has always used his abundant comedic gifts to explore serious, complex subjectse.g., human frailty, faith and morality, love and connection, the funhouse of contemporary American cultureand Hollow is the book in which it All Comes Together, the work of a copiously talented writer at the top of his game. Our protagonist, a contemporary Job buckling under the weight of profound suffering and losshis own, and that of those who surround him, toois primed for a hero s journey that will get him right with the world again. But Hollow is a surprising book, one that eschews the expected, and his journey ends up being very different from the one heor the readerexpects. There are no easy answers or tidy resolutions, but there s hard-won grace and a hell of a lot of humor along the way. Egerton can go from dry wit to crushing despair to slapstick dildo-fighting to theological rumination all on the same page, andhere s the miracleit works. If you dig what George Saunders doesthat big, compassionate bear-hug of sadness, vulnerability, joy, pain, and humor in many forms (cerebral, sweet, goofball, wicked, and pitch-black)Hollow will hit you right in the sweet spot. Possibly with a dildo. Doug Dorst, author of S. and Alive in Necropolis Praise for The Book of Harold "A lively and beautifully crafted novel about the anguish of belief."Kirkus I love every word that Owen Egerton writes or utters and The Book of Harold bumps my admiration up to a new level. It takes a brave author to attempt satire these days. But it takes Owen Egerton to make it the wise, hilarious, finely-observed, and, ultimately, compassionate ring-tailed delight that The Book of Harold is. Sarah Bird, author of The Gap Year "Only Owen Egerton can create a new religion around a former computer salesman and make you want to up and take a pilgrimage to Austin with the rest of the Haroldians. Egerton has the gift of walking that fine line between hilarity and heart with grace. Follow." Elizabeth Crane, author of The History of Great Things "An engaging exploration of everything ridiculous, horrible, and beautiful that humanity has ever been given or invented about religion, Egerton s first novel is poignant and entertaining not just for those familiar with the New Testament but for anyone who is familiar with the American lifestyle."The Hipster Book Club Praise for Everyone Says That at the End of the World "The world ends in Austin, Texas, and a multitude of less cool venues, in Egerton s seriocomic eschatological whimsy A brainy, often riotous, ultimately moving Cat s Cradle for our time peopled with reluctant seekers of spiritual nourishment who might have stepped from the pages of Flannery O Connor." Kirkus "Egerton (The Book of Harold) juggles farce, religious satire, philosophy, and a road trip as a slew of characters converge in a manic quest. A well-traveled hermit crab, 38 mistreated Jesus clones, sleep-deprived monks, and an oft-exchanged prosthetic leg figure into this rollicking madhouse of an apocalypse Egerton is very funny." Library Journal "People at the coffee shop were actually staring at meI don't think they fully believed that a book could make a person laugh that hard. Egerton has written an expansive novel that is generous enough to cover the end of the world, and the beginning, and a good number of the key points in between, and filled it with warmth, intelligence, wisdom, and humora personal and universal cosmology that made me laugh and think and feel and laugh some more. I think this is a future classic, and people will be reading this book decades from now. I know I will." Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe "In this expansive, funny, touching epicpart travelogue, part quest narrativeEgerton offers up a Texan love letter generous enough to include even the nutria." Amelia Gray, author of Gutshot"