‘Full of dark deadpan humour Brat is a raucous story of the messy messed-up business of
living dying and having a family.’ Financial Times ‘ A moving coming-of-age family story’
Observer ' Iconic' Radio 1 I was in the waiting room. Then I was in the
examination room. Gabriel’s skin is falling off. His dad is dead. He owes his
editor a novel. His girlfriend won’t answer his calls. Tasked by his horribly
well-adjusted brother with clearing out the family home for sale Gabriel’s sanity quickly
begins to unravel. His parents’ old manuscripts appear to change each time he reads them. A
bizarre home video hints at long-buried secrets. And there’s a hideous man in the garden.
Disquieting and hilarious taut yet lyrical blisteringly-paced but formally inventive Brat
is a mediation on grief art and love that will leave you altered breathless and desperate for
more. From a stunningly original new talent this is a debut novel unlike anything you
have read before. ‘This original clever story is brilliant on grief madness and
creativity. It’s beautifully written hilarious and heart-breaking. I raced through it.’ Daily
Mail ‘For readers looking for something that will grip you from start to finish Brat is
sure to be your breath of fresh air. The novel crackles with gothic horror deadpan humor and
a damning sense of alienation that you won’t soon shake.’ Chicago Review of Books
‘Smith' s picaresque first novel is told from the perspective of Gabriel a writer
struggling with numerous issues . . . a deeply gothic work that never quite settles the reader
in a certain world as Gabriel’s foibles ghostly visions and uncertainties filter every
moment. Written in short clipped chapters and featuring uproarious dialogue (especially with
Gabriel' s brother) this is a darkly comic and brilliantly unusual debut.’ Booklist
‘[Smith' s] dialogue shines . . . Readers who appreciate the morbidly funny and the just
plain morbid will find a lot to love in these pages. A weird and darkly funny novel from a
writer to watch.’ Kirkus ‘It' s a book about loss and the anxiety of the modern age
tinged with humor and deep insight that will stay with readers long after the last page is
turned.’ Town & Country ' Gabriel Smith has written a truly unique and surprising book.
He is the rarest thing: a distinctive stylist on the line and structure level. Brat is so
strange and so funny. I laughed a lot while reading.' Rachel Connolly author of Lazy
City ' Messy with glitched realities and body horror Brat breathes the same thrillingly
claustrophobic air as Inland Empire and Ubik. It’s a skin-shedding ouroboros of grief and
laughter and the most brain-melting British debut I’ve read in ages.' Ed Park author of
Same Bed Different Dreams ' Gabriel Smith’s prose is like if Joan Didion and Shirley
Jackson took Xanax and used the internet. Brat is a sharp eerie confident debut about grief
memory art and so much more. Smith is a major new talent.' Jordan Castro author of The
Novelist ' Gabriel Smith’s jauntily creepy and hilarious tale of a grief-stalked
scapegrace’s sloughing-off and regeneration of selves in the filial murk of a moldering
homestead is a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for a new quaking generation. Brat will
unnerve and seduce you.' Garielle Lutz author of Worsted ' Smith' s picaresque
first novel is told from the perspective of Gabriel a writer struggling with numerous issues .
. . a deeply gothic work that never quite settles the reader in a certain world as Gabriel’s
foibles ghostly visions and uncertainties filter every moment. Written in short clipped
chapters and featuring uproarious dialogue (especially with Gabriel' s brother) this is a
darkly comic and brilliantly unusual debut.' Booklist ' [Smith' s] dialogue
shines . . . Readers who appreciate the morbidly funny and the just plain morbid will find a
lot to love in these pages. A weird and darkly funny novel from a writer to watch.' Kirkus