Name: Neon in Daylight
ISBN: 9781936787753

Hermione Hoby

Three lives collide in New York City in the summer of 2012. An exhilarating debut novel that announces the arrival of a writer who "channels the spirit of Joan Didion and the keen observational eye of Ben Lerner to show us the here and now" (Alexandra Kleeman).

Neon in Daylight

'What do you get when a writer of extreme intelligence, insight, style and beauty chronicles the lives of self-absorbed hedonists - The Great Gatsby, Bright Lights, Big City, and now Neon in Daylight. Hermione Hoby held me spellbound' Ann Patchett, author of COMMONWEALTH 'Hoby is so good at unpacking all the strange dynamics at work in sex and desire' Emma Cline, author of THE GIRLS 'The perfect book with which to while away those hot summer nights' Independent 'Expect Gatsby-esque hedonism and lyricism' Evening Standard 'You will be transfixed' The Pool 'Smart, shimmering ... glinting with pocketable images and insights ... A vibrant rush of a novel' Observer A New York summer so hot the air is turning yellow. Kate, a young woman newly arrived from London, is determined to become the kind of person who is up for it and down for it - and not remotely troubled over how those two semantically opposed phrases could have come to mean the same thing. In the sweltering city, she encounters Bill, a once-lauded now booze-sodden novelist, and Inez, his teenage daughter who makes extra cash catering to the sexual fantasies of men she has met online - and falls into a complex infatuation with them both.

Kaylee Weaver

Sara Sunshine

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "A radiant first novel. . . . [Neon in Daylight] has antecedents in the great novels of the 1970s: Renata Adler’s Speedboat, Elizabeth Hardwick’s Sleepless Nights, Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays. . . . Precision—of observation, of language—is Hoby’s gift. Her sentences are sleek and tailored. Language molds snugly to thought." —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "What do you get when a writer of extreme intelligence, insight, style and beauty chronicles the lives of self–absorbed hedonists—The Great Gatsby, Bright Lights, Big City, and now Neon in Daylight. Hermione Hoby paints a garish world that drew me in and held me spellbound. She is a marvel."" —Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth New York City in 2012, the sweltering summer before Hurricane Sandy hits. Kate, a young woman newly arrived from England, is staying in a Manhattan apartment while she tries to figure out her future. She has two unfortunate responsibilities during her time in America: to make regular Skype calls to her miserable boyfriend back home, and to cat–sit an indifferent feline named Joni Mitchell. The city has other plans for her. In New York's parks and bodegas, its galleries and performance spaces, its bars and clubs crowded with bodies, Kate encounters two strangers who will transform her stay: Bill, a charismatic but embittered writer made famous by the movie version of his only novel; and Inez, his daughter, a recent high school graduate who supplements her Bushwick cafe salary by enacting the fantasies of men she meets on Craigslist. Unmoored from her old life, Kate falls into an infatuation with both of them. Set in a heatwave that feels like it will never break, Neon In Daylight marries deep intelligence with captivating characters to offer us a joyful, unflinching exploration of desire, solitude, and the thin line between life and art.

Neon in Daylight

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