Powerful and Dazzling: Read an Extract from Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

Powerful and Dazzling: Read an Extract from Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

In the corner of the small living room of the small country house at the end of the dirt road beneath the blue Carolina sky, the dark‐skinned five‐year‐old boy sat with his knees pulled to his chest and his small, dark arms wrapped around his legs and it took all that he had to contain the laughter inside the thrumming cage of his chest.

His mother, seated on the couch with her dark hands folded into her lap and her brow furrowed like Mr. Johnson’s fields at the end of winter, pursed her lips and fidgeted with the fabric of the tattered gray dress she wore. It was a dress she’d bought before the boy even came into this world. It aged with him. Year upon year, the blue floral pattern faded, one shade of color at a time. The threads around the hem lost their grip on things. They broke apart and reached their dangling necks in every direction that might take them away. And now, after seven years of hard work, the dress looked as though it would not be able to hold its fraying fabric together much longer…

Continue reading the extract here…

Publisher details

Hell of a Book
Author
Jason Mott
Publisher
Hachette
Genre
Fiction
Released
29 June, 2021
ISBN
9781398704657

Synopsis

Meet . . . wait, we don't actually know his name. What we do know about him is he's an author. He moves from airport to bookshop to chain hotel, on tour for his new bestseller HELL OF A BOOK. And, as people keep telling him, it's a hell of a book. Some of these people may or may not be real - because the other thing to know about him is he has, let's say, an overactive imagination... For example, only he can see The Kid: a young black boy, who may or may not be the young black boy on the news recently. The one who was shot by the police. The one who everyone is on the streets protesting about. Or he might be any of the others. He may be all of them, or none of them. That may or may not be important. He may even be our author telling us this story. And all of this may or may not be happening. Every. Single. Day.
Jason Mott
About the author

Jason Mott

Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction has appeared in various journals such as Prick of the Spindle, The Thomas Wolfe Review, The Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets, Measure and Chautauqua. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize award.He is the author of two poetry collections. The Returned is his first novel.The Returned has also been optioned by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, in association with Brillstein Entertainment and ABC.

Books by Jason Mott

COMMENTS

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  1. Jack says:

    This excerpt is beautifully written and emotionally powerful—the imagery of the small living room and the fading dress really stays with you. Jason Mott’s storytelling feels intimate yet deeply layered, capturing both innocence and tension in such a subtle way. Reading pieces like this always makes me reflect on how real-life stories unfold beyond the page, especially when exploring themes connected to Arrest history lookup on https://arestsorg.com. It’s a compelling reminder of how personal narratives and recorded histories often intersect in unexpected ways.

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