David Homel's novel, The Teardown

David Homel's new novel will be revealed to the world 7:00 pm on March 21 at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Bernard West, Montreal. David will be interviewed by writer Katia Grubisic.

Here's a little taste...

Phil Brenner envied his wife’s relationship with books. Like everyone in his position, he read non-fiction for research. But he could not equal the way she gave herself to a book. She could reread one immediately after finishing it, and each time it was new to her, she found hidden aspects that emerged after the second or third reading, and revisited the characters with pleasure. Uncharitably, sometimes Phil wondered if she had really paid attention to it the first time or whether, as she did with Netflix, she was using the author to carry her into the sleep she so deeply prized.

He was jealous of the authors she slept with. He did not feel the same way about Netflix. She took her books into her bed. Netflix remained inside a box, on a screen. This evening, when she reached the end of a chapter in her book about a woman whose life was transformed by her discovery of the beauty of birds, she turned to look in his direction. He was sitting stiffly, propped up by pillows, bookless. He did not like to read in bed.

“I’m in a slump,” he said.

“For all its candor, The Teardown moves towards a place of quiet wisdom and deep truth about the joys and sorrows of mid-life. Fiction this bold is rare, and a welcome reminder of the novel’s power as a humble witness to human complexity. David Homel has never written better.”
—Charles Foran, author of Mordecai and Planet Lolita