A blisteringly funny and transcendently deranged debut novel for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood and George Saunders
'One of the sharpest and liveliest debuts of the decade' VULTURE
'Obscenely good and very funny' CATHERINE LACEY
'A startling fever dream of a novel' LUCY ROSE
'So smart, weird and eerie . . . I recommend everyone buy it when it comes out' MADELINE CASH
In Offseason, our fiercely observant but self-deluded narrator finds herself teaching at an all-girls boarding school in a remote coastal town.
In between manic lectures that veer from Charles Dickens's Bleak House to the childhood maltreatment of her beloved Iosif Stalin and the generational legacy of the Holocaust, she implicates everyone she meets in her quest to pin down where exactly her own life went wrong.
Blisteringly funny and transcendently deranged, Offseason marks the arrival of a wild new literary talent.
'Indescribably brilliant . . . You've never read anything like it' ELIZABETH McCRACKEN
'A bonkers and beautifully written novel . . . Absorbing and original' NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS
'Yes, Offseason is hilarious, eccentric and gleefully mean-spirited, but just when you think you know what Sharp is doing, she will shatter your heart. I haven't read something so incisive, so slyly tender in years' LISA McINERNEY
'A narrator who makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar' MICHAEL CHABON
Genre: Literary Fiction
'One of the sharpest and liveliest debuts of the decade' VULTURE
'Obscenely good and very funny' CATHERINE LACEY
'A startling fever dream of a novel' LUCY ROSE
'So smart, weird and eerie . . . I recommend everyone buy it when it comes out' MADELINE CASH
In Offseason, our fiercely observant but self-deluded narrator finds herself teaching at an all-girls boarding school in a remote coastal town.
In between manic lectures that veer from Charles Dickens's Bleak House to the childhood maltreatment of her beloved Iosif Stalin and the generational legacy of the Holocaust, she implicates everyone she meets in her quest to pin down where exactly her own life went wrong.
Blisteringly funny and transcendently deranged, Offseason marks the arrival of a wild new literary talent.
'Indescribably brilliant . . . You've never read anything like it' ELIZABETH McCRACKEN
'A bonkers and beautifully written novel . . . Absorbing and original' NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS
'Yes, Offseason is hilarious, eccentric and gleefully mean-spirited, but just when you think you know what Sharp is doing, she will shatter your heart. I haven't read something so incisive, so slyly tender in years' LISA McINERNEY
'A narrator who makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar' MICHAEL CHABON
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"I am a wholesale fan of Avigayl Sharp's fiction. Offseason, full of voice, reads like Sharp's been writing novels for years. Fierce, disciplined observations leap through this unforgettable story of departure and return in an America that has become unrecognizable even to the girls Sharp's narrator attempts to teach. Hilariously deadpan, mordantly sardonic, Offseason is a knockout debut." - Jessica Anthony
"To let us see the world reinvented through the eyes of a narrator who makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar, to have us laugh at what is painful and feel compassion when the narrator is lighting firecracker sentences to get us to look elsewhere - this is the eternal promise of the literary first novel. In Offseason, Avigayl Sharp fulfills that promise, amply, and with art and wit." - Michael Chabon
"Sharp's narrator is exactly the right amount of unhinged: She'll overshare about the worst parts of her life with anyone who will listen, and even people who don't want to, but she always stops just short of fully imploding her life or turning evil . . . It's a whip-smart, sardonic book." - Sarah Rose Etter
"What a delight to read this heartbreaking and hilarious Bildungsroman, at turns melancholic and achingly funny, striated with a whipsaw wit for our deeply busted modern world. Offseason reads like Jane Bowles if she had access to unlimited data; fans of Bowles and Jen Beagin should make room on their shelves for a new shrine." - Amelia Gray
"An obscenely good and very funny debut about the black hole of building your identity around the worst things that have ever happened to you. Unhinged in the best way." - Catherine Lacey
"How does one describe a book as indescribably brilliant as Offseason? It is no less than a contour map of one woman on planet Earth, from the innermost workings of her mind and soul to her unruly body to the hilarious and hostile world around her. It is profound and uproarious, exciting and thought-provoking, unafraid and original, genuinely dark and yet also genuinely joyful. You've never read anything like it." - Elizabeth McCracken
"Ottessa Moshfegh meets Yorgos Lanthimos, Offseason simmers with wit and elegance. It's a startling fever dream of a novel. When Avigayl Sharp writes, it is impossible to look away." - Lucy Rose
"To let us see the world reinvented through the eyes of a narrator who makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar, to have us laugh at what is painful and feel compassion when the narrator is lighting firecracker sentences to get us to look elsewhere - this is the eternal promise of the literary first novel. In Offseason, Avigayl Sharp fulfills that promise, amply, and with art and wit." - Michael Chabon
"Sharp's narrator is exactly the right amount of unhinged: She'll overshare about the worst parts of her life with anyone who will listen, and even people who don't want to, but she always stops just short of fully imploding her life or turning evil . . . It's a whip-smart, sardonic book." - Sarah Rose Etter
"What a delight to read this heartbreaking and hilarious Bildungsroman, at turns melancholic and achingly funny, striated with a whipsaw wit for our deeply busted modern world. Offseason reads like Jane Bowles if she had access to unlimited data; fans of Bowles and Jen Beagin should make room on their shelves for a new shrine." - Amelia Gray
"An obscenely good and very funny debut about the black hole of building your identity around the worst things that have ever happened to you. Unhinged in the best way." - Catherine Lacey
"How does one describe a book as indescribably brilliant as Offseason? It is no less than a contour map of one woman on planet Earth, from the innermost workings of her mind and soul to her unruly body to the hilarious and hostile world around her. It is profound and uproarious, exciting and thought-provoking, unafraid and original, genuinely dark and yet also genuinely joyful. You've never read anything like it." - Elizabeth McCracken
"Ottessa Moshfegh meets Yorgos Lanthimos, Offseason simmers with wit and elegance. It's a startling fever dream of a novel. When Avigayl Sharp writes, it is impossible to look away." - Lucy Rose
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