Franz Kafka meets Yorgos Lanthimos in The Repeat Room, the provocative new novel from one of America’s most brilliant and distinctive writers
In This Spotlight On The Repeat Room
About The Repeat Room
In a speculative future, Abel, a menial worker, is called to serve in a secretive and fabled jury system. At the heart of this system is the repeat room, where a single juror, selected from hundreds of candidates, is able to inhabit the defendant’s lived experience, to see as if through their eyes.
The case to which Abel is assigned is revealed in the novel’s shocking second act. We receive a record of a boy’s broken and constrained life, a tale that reveals an illicit and passionate psycho-sexual relationship, its end as tragic as the circumstances of its conception.
Artful in its suspense, and sharp in its evocation of a byzantine and cruel bureaucracy, The Repeat Room is an exciting and pointed critique of the nature of knowledge and judgment, and a vivid framing of Ball’s absurd and nihilistic philosophy of love.
Source: Publisher
Published by Catapult
Publish Date: Sep 24, 2024
ISBN-13 9781646221400
Praise for The Repeat Room
Literary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Book of Summer
“Thought-provoking and critical of the judicial system and the nature of judgment, Ball is a deft stylist and exquisite thinker.”—Sam Franzini, Our Culture Mag
“I recently found myself hoping that one day Yorgos Lanthimos will find his next directorial project in the work of Jesse Ball—two visionaries who combine uncompromising bleakness and the sharpest of dark wit to create absurd depictions of human desire. Perhaps the best place to start would be with The Repeat Room, a novel set in a speculative future where a single juror is selected to inhabit the defendant’s lived experience through their own eyes.”—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“It was Ball’s unique prose, cunning craft, and distinct skill for capturing the human psyche that led me to finish the book in two gluttonous sittings . . . Ball never once falters in his unabashed portrayal of the human mind—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Throughout the novel, profound depictions of the human condition left me feeling so utterly seen that it was both marvelous and frightening . . . The Repeat Room is a book that has been stuck in my mind for weeks, and it shows no signs of leaving anytime soon. The novel is a must-read for anyone interested in considerations of judgment, philosophy, justice, and the self. And shouldn’t that be all of us?”—Brighid Griffin, The Sewanee Review
“The fictional realms Ball constructs are unnerving in their depictions of social and physical austerity, facades behind which emotions roil . . . Ball’s vision is chilling, his writing flawless in this stark, grueling tale.”—Booklist
“A Kafkaesque descent into a legal system . . . The contrast between the first and second halves of Ball’s mesmerizing novel is stark and effective . . . A fast-paced tilt-a-whirl of a social commentary absurdist novel, with insights that will leave readers feeling complicit.”—Shelf Awareness
“[Ball’s] style and the unsettling atmosphere deliver a uniquely uncomfortable experience . . . A provocative vision of a world desperately in search of basic human compassion.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Blistering . . . Ball’s tragic character study of the accused stands in stark relief to the chilling depiction of the court system and its low estimation of human life . . . This strikes a chord.”—Publishers Weekly
“This novel forces tough moral questions on readers, and will make you wonder what it means to be a good person—and, ultimately, if it even matters.”—Daniella Fishman, The Millions
About Jesse Ball, Author of The Repeat Room
Born in New York, Jesse Ball is the author of fourteen books, most recently the novel How to Set a Fire and Why. He is an absurdist whose prize-winning work has been translated into more than twenty languages. His works have been published to acclaim in many parts of the world and translated into more than a dozen languages. He is on the faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, won the 2008 Paris Review Plimpton Prize, was long-listed for the National Book Award, and has been a fellow of the NEA, Creative Capital, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Titles by Jesse Ball
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