‘A major literary achievement’ Observer‘Read it slowly and savour its memoirish richness’ Sunday Times‘A sparkling, disturbing novel of a boy discovering himself and growing up amid self-preoccupied adults’ The Herald‘Such is the stuff great novels are made on’ Washington Post, ‘10 Best Books of 2025’Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep - along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach - he's teetering on the edge of collapse.Then Griffin meets Naomi Shah, twenty-two years his senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink - whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren - Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.The story of a sentimental miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses - and who seem to care little about what their children are up to - Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.'A gorgeous cat's cradle of a book' New York Times‘Extraordinary… I didn’t want it to end. The story is so rich and filled with intriguing - if morally questionable - characters that it’s immersive… This entire review could be made up of sentences I underlined for their beauty.’ Los Angeles Times‘A marvel… Playworld conjures, in beautiful sentences, a bygone New York, when money and culture linked arms, recalling Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch’ Boston Globe

‘A masterpiece’ Observer‘A gallery of widescreen vignettes of 1980s Manhattan. Read it slowly and savour its memoirish richness.’ Sunday Times‘A sparkling, disturbing novel of a boy discovering himself and growing up amid self-preoccupied adults’ The Herald‘Such is the stuff great novels are made on’ Washington Post, ‘10 Best Books of 2025’'A gorgeous cat's cradle of a book' New York TimesGriffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep - along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach - he's teetering on the edge of collapse.Then Griffin meets Naomi Shah, twenty-two years his senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink - whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren - Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.The story of a sentimental miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses - and who seem to care little about what their children are up to - Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.‘Extraordinary… I didn’t want it to end. The story is so rich and filled with intriguing - if morally questionable - characters that it’s immersive… This entire review could be made up of sentences I underlined for their beauty.’ Los Angeles Times‘A marvel… Playworld conjures, in beautiful sentences, a bygone New York, when money and culture linked arms, recalling Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch’ Boston Globe

David Pepin has loved his wife since the moment they met, and he can't imagine living without her - yet he obsessively contemplates her demise. Soon she's dead, and he's both deeply distraught and the prime suspect.The detectives investigating her death have their own conjugal difficulties. Ward Hastroll's wife is inexplicably, voluntarily bedridden. And Sam Sheppard has for decades been especially sensitive to the intricacies of marital guilt, for the most personal of reasons....When Pepin is linked to a hitman, the case begins to resemble the Escher drawings that inspire the computer games Pepin designs for a living. Mesmerizing, hugely poignant, astonishing in its reach, Mr. Peanut is a police procedural of the soul and a first novel of the highest order.

A hotshot young lawyer, burdened by years of guilt and resentment, comes to the aid of his irresponsible kid brother, only to realise he's a pawn in a treacherous scheme. A lonely professor, frequently regaled with outrageous tales by the office handyman, suddenly fears he's being asked to abet a murderous fugitive. A man down on his luck closes in on a mysterious job offer while doing a good turn for his fragile neighbour, but his efforts backfire in a terrifically surreal - and hilarious - manner. Four college kids goad each other on in a series of escalating dares, culminating in a result as ambiguous as it is tragic. An enterprising adolescence uses his brief career as a child actor to fulfil the crush he has on a friend's seemingly untouchable older sister.Laced throughout with glimmers of redemption and a refreshing combination of warmth and cynicism, these noirish narratives have a youthful energy that belies their hard-won wisdom, and together they showcase one of our most outstanding new writers.

‘A major literary achievement’ Observer‘Read it slowly and savour its memoirish richness’ Sunday Times‘A sparkling, disturbing novel of a boy discovering himself and growing up amid self-preoccupied adults’ The Herald‘Such is the stuff great novels are made on’ Washington Post, ‘10 Best Books of 2025’Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep - along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach - he's teetering on the edge of collapse.Then Griffin meets Naomi Shah, twenty-two years his senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink - whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren - Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.The story of a sentimental miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses - and who seem to care little about what their children are up to - Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.'A gorgeous cat's cradle of a book' New York Times‘Extraordinary… I didn’t want it to end. The story is so rich and filled with intriguing - if morally questionable - characters that it’s immersive… This entire review could be made up of sentences I underlined for their beauty.’ Los Angeles Times‘A marvel… Playworld conjures, in beautiful sentences, a bygone New York, when money and culture linked arms, recalling Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch’ Boston Globe

‘A masterpiece’ Observer‘A gallery of widescreen vignettes of 1980s Manhattan. Read it slowly and savour its memoirish richness.’ Sunday Times‘A sparkling, disturbing novel of a boy discovering himself and growing up amid self-preoccupied adults’ The Herald‘Such is the stuff great novels are made on’ Washington Post, ‘10 Best Books of 2025’'A gorgeous cat's cradle of a book' New York TimesGriffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show The Nuclear Family and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep - along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach - he's teetering on the edge of collapse.Then Griffin meets Naomi Shah, twenty-two years his senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink - whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother, Oren - Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.The story of a sentimental miseducation, Playworld is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era. Surrounded by adults who embody the age’s excesses - and who seem to care little about what their children are up to - Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.‘Extraordinary… I didn’t want it to end. The story is so rich and filled with intriguing - if morally questionable - characters that it’s immersive… This entire review could be made up of sentences I underlined for their beauty.’ Los Angeles Times‘A marvel… Playworld conjures, in beautiful sentences, a bygone New York, when money and culture linked arms, recalling Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch’ Boston Globe

David Pepin has loved his wife since the moment they met, and he can't imagine living without her - yet he obsessively contemplates her demise. Soon she's dead, and he's both deeply distraught and the prime suspect.The detectives investigating her death have their own conjugal difficulties. Ward Hastroll's wife is inexplicably, voluntarily bedridden. And Sam Sheppard has for decades been especially sensitive to the intricacies of marital guilt, for the most personal of reasons....When Pepin is linked to a hitman, the case begins to resemble the Escher drawings that inspire the computer games Pepin designs for a living. Mesmerizing, hugely poignant, astonishing in its reach, Mr. Peanut is a police procedural of the soul and a first novel of the highest order.

A hotshot young lawyer, burdened by years of guilt and resentment, comes to the aid of his irresponsible kid brother, only to realise he's a pawn in a treacherous scheme. A lonely professor, frequently regaled with outrageous tales by the office handyman, suddenly fears he's being asked to abet a murderous fugitive. A man down on his luck closes in on a mysterious job offer while doing a good turn for his fragile neighbour, but his efforts backfire in a terrifically surreal - and hilarious - manner. Four college kids goad each other on in a series of escalating dares, culminating in a result as ambiguous as it is tragic. An enterprising adolescence uses his brief career as a child actor to fulfil the crush he has on a friend's seemingly untouchable older sister.Laced throughout with glimmers of redemption and a refreshing combination of warmth and cynicism, these noirish narratives have a youthful energy that belies their hard-won wisdom, and together they showcase one of our most outstanding new writers.