Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
How to Leave the House

How to Leave the House

Newman, Nathan

Paperback

HumorGeneral GLBTQIA FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $18.00

ISBN10: 0593654927
ISBN13: 9780593654927
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: Aug 12 2025
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.20 Depth: 7.90
Language: English
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year

It may sound peculiar that a story featuring chapter-length text message exchanges and a hysterical egg fight during a gender reveal party could contain such potent, moving allusions to philosophy and James Joyce, let alone be filled with richly observed artistic references reminiscent of Ali Smith, but Newman weaves the analytical and the absurd with a raucous grace. . .Profound--and profoundly sidesplitting. --Bobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review

It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house--which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. Any alternative is too distressing to consider. . .

This is the story of twenty-four hours in the life of Natwest, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. And yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist--but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend, and his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.

Alternating between Natwest's idiosyncratic inner world and the perspectives of the other characters--and dazzling in its energy, imagination and originality--this is an outrageously funny and tenderly moving story about being connected to everyone and everything at all times; about love, friendship, and the lies we tell ourselves; about unhappy endings, happy endings--and whether anything really is as simple as one or the other.

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