The debut of a literary star, Honor Levy, a buzzy and acclaimed major voice of Generation Z.
Walking the wire between imagination and confession, “My First Book” captures how it feels to grow up in the internet generation and confirms Honor Levy as a groundbreaking literary star. Levy's uniquely riveting voice emerges from the trials of coming of age in the 21st century, when the ordinary confusion of growing up is amplified by the chaos and omnipresence of the internet.
Never far from a digital interface, Levy's characters grapple with formative political, existential, and sexual experiences-and confront questions about reality, God, and human life-in a web-imbued world that is simultaneously hyper-political, hyper-real, and constantly on the brink of collapse. Amid the mood of impending catastrophe, a fragile self struggles to form. This self is the formal center and the beating heart of Levy's stories, by turns ambitious, profound, and surreal.
As the Pope tweets, an 11-year-old plays God on neo-pets. On a rooftop at dusk, teenagers can only talk about other sunsets that were "pinker, like way pinker." On a Halloween night, concerns about the police state coincide with jadedness about boys and the probability of nonviolent change in our lifetimes. A romance careens between Gatsby references, incel references, and the infinite nature of love.
In capturing the experience of an entire generation, “My First Book” marks the debut of an electric new talent.
