HALLE BUTLER
BANAL NIGHTMARE (paperback available Aug '25)
In a Midwestern college town at the height of the Me Too era, a bunch of simultaneously self-flagellating and self-aggrandizing pseudo-academics sit around, think, and send each other insulting emails. As the impulses and memories they have barely managed to repress begin to surface, their relationships become increasingly deranged.
"Her most accomplished novel.” -The New York Review of Books
“Butler has crafted a novel in which every character proves to be completely, uniquely crazy. Her perverse sense of humor should be studied and celebrated.” -David Sedaris
"Unbelievably funny." -Jia Tolentino
"So funny, so smart, utterly vicious—just brilliant." -Zadie Smith
"I almost felt like I was being held hostage" -Chicago Tribune
"[Kimberly] is a horrid creation, a highlight of the novel." -The Times London
