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“A haunting and extraordinary book.”
— Julie Orringer, New York Times bestselling author of How to Breathe Underwater
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“Love and death; our two greatest mysteries. Not many writers have the guts or the skill to take them on at the same time, but Nicholas Montemarano has both. With The Book of Why, he’s managed a seemingly impossible feat—using language to delineate, with great compassion and precision, that which appears ineffable.”
— Ron Currie Jr., author of Everything Matters!
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“Nicholas Montemarano is a brilliant storyteller with a poet’s heart—and The Book of Why is an intricately constructed narrative, part riveting, part reverie, part eerily beautiful. I wanted to share this novel to last forever, and still I could not bear to put it down—kind of like life itself.”
— Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Late Wife
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“The Book of Why presents a compulsively readable mystery; it is impossible to resist how persuasively Montemarano plays with the metaphysics of love and desire.”
— Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia
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“Eric’s poignant loss reminds us all of the fragility of relationships and of the hard truths we find difficult to face.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“A beautiful journey of self-discovery that will inspire readers.”
— Booklist
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I love Nicholas Montemarano's writing. He turns the lights up so bright on the beauty of daily life that the dark places he goes leave you gasping. The Book of Why is a breath-taking show of love and hope, of disappearing acts, of restorative reappearances. It is, in a word, magic.
— Rachel DeWoskin, author of Big Girl Small
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Love and death: our two greatest mysteries. Not many writers have the guts or the skill to take them on at the same time, but Nicholas Montemarano has both. With The Book of Why, he's managed a seemingly impossible feat-using language to delineate, with great compassion and precision, that which appears ineffable.
— Ron Currie, Jr., author of Everything Matters!
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"Nicholas Montemarano is a brilliant storyteller with a poet's heart-and The Book of Why is an intricately constructed narrative, part riveting, part reverie, entirely beautiful. I wanted this novel to last forever, and still I could not bear to put it down-kind of like life itself.
— Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Late Wife
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The Book of Why presents a compulsively readable mystery; it is impossible to resist how persuasively Montemarano plays with the metaphysics of love and desire.
— Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia
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Remarkable . . . deft storytelling and ruthless honesty . . . as dark and dazzling as a mine shaft studded with diamonds.
— The New York Times Book Review
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An American stylist capable of redeeming our darkest dreams.
— Jayne Anne Phillips
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One of my favorite contemporary short-story writers, and, for my money, among the best we've got.
— Dan Chaon, author of Among the Missing and You Remind Me of Me
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Dark, powerful . . . Montemarano handles brutality and abjection with ambiguity and subtlety.
— Publishers Weekly
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Montemarano's writing is sure and clear and direct. He describes the banalities of everyday life with clinical precision.
— San Francisco Chronicle