The First Bad Man

July, Miranda

3.64

28,772 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 1442380683 ISBN 13: 9781442380684

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2015

From the acclaimed filmmaker, artist, and bestselling author of No One Belongs Here More Than You, a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny—so Miranda July—that readers will be blown away.

Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people’s babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women’s self-defense nonprofit where she works. She believes they’ve been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one.

When Cheryl’s bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter, Clee, can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl’s eccentrically ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee—the selfish, cruel blond bombshell—who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.

Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual obsession and fierce maternal love, Miranda July’s first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic, and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.

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Review:

"The novel exploded my expectations and became unlike anything I've ever read . . . hilarious . . . A wry, smart companion on any day. It's warm, it has a heartbeat and a pulse. This is a book that is painfully alive" (The New York Times Book Review)

"Astounding . . . she will make you laugh, cringe and recognise yourself in a woman you never planned to be . . . Never has a novel spoken so deeply to my sexuality, my spirituality, my secret self. I know I am not alone" (LENA DUNHAM)

"I am in awe of Miranda July . . . The First Bad Man brings together all of July's talents - it's a book that must be read, a book that must be purchased - in duplicate - one for you, one for a friend. Don't think you can loan this book - you'll never get it back" (A. M. HOMES author of THIS BOOK WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE and MAY WE BE FORGIVEN)

"Miranda July's heroine in this unforgettable novel is one of the most original, most confounding and strangely sympathetic characters . . . This novel is almost impossible to put down, and confirms July as a novelist of the first order" (DAVE EGGERS)

"July's storytelling skills crackle to life" (New York Times)

"If I ever start to doubt the power of language and intelligence, I only have to read a few lines of July to have my faith restored" (GEORGE SAUNDERS author of TENTH OF DECEMBER)

"The first novel by the filmmaker and artist Miranda July is like one of those strange mythological creatures that are part one thing, part another - a griffin or a chimera, perhaps, or a sphinx . . . An immensely moving portrait of motherhood and what it means to take care of a child . . . July writes of Cheryl's discovery of maternal love with heartfelt emotion and power" (Michiko Kakutani New York Times)

"A book that I love. It is heartbreakingly sad, and thoughtful, and disgusting and hilarious" (Eva Wiseman Observer)

"Immensely moving" (Scotsman)

"Weird, hilarious and heartbreaking" (Glamour)

Book Description:

A stunning, must-have summer read from the bestselling and award-winning Miranda July

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