Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind

‘Trippy, incisive, riotously funny’ ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN

‘[An] insightfully nightmarish parable ' HALLE BUTLER

'A stunner’ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH

‘Luminous … as if George Saunders infiltrated the Severance writers’ room’ WASHINGTON POST

A work place novel. A love story. A dream you can’t wake from…

Jonathan Abernathy is a loser. Unemployed and behind on his student loan repayments, the only thing Abernathy has in abundance is debt.

When a secretive government loan forgiveness programme offers him a job he can literally do in his sleep, Abernathy thinks he’s found his big break. Hired as a dream auditor, he finds himself entering the dreams of white-collar workers to flag their anxieties for removal at night so they'll be more productive in the day. If Abernathy can at least appear competent, might he have a chance at a new life?

As Abernathy tries to find his footing in this new gig, reality and morality begin to warp around him. Soon, the lines between life and work, right and wrong, and even sleep and consciousness, have blurred and Abernathy begins to wonder just what he might have signed away…

Wildly imaginative, laced with black humour and full of close-to-the-bone truths, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is the cult workplace novel that’s like nothing else you've read before.

‘Surrealist … A scathing critique of capitalism’TIME

'Imagine the movie Inception, but populated by the middle-management workers in David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs' NEW YORK TIMES

'An excitingly original writer, inventing much needed and killingly funny satires for contemporary work and dreams of success' HOLLY PESTER

‘A revelation’ HILARY LEICHTER

‘An original mind brimming over with invention’ BEN MARCUS

‘An exuberant, poignant, freewheeling debut … very funny’ JEFF VANDERMEER

‘The spiritual sibling of Severance, but creepier’LITERARY HUB

© 2023 Fourth Estate (Audiobook): 9780008608699

Release date

Audiobook: 26 October 2023