The Instructions
Adam Levin
Available as Paperback
Meet Gurion Maccabee. He’s ten years old, a lover, a brother, a soldier and the smartest kid you’ll ever meet.
Gurion has been expelled from three Jewish day-schools for acts of violence and messianic tendencies. He ends up in the Cage, a special lockdown program for the most hopeless cases at his new junior high school. But in just four days, from the moment he meets the beautiful Eliza June Watermark to the terrifying Events of November 17, Gurion’s search for righteousness sparks a violent, unstoppable rebellion. Driven equally by moral fervour and teenage exuberance, The Instructions is hilarious, troubling, empathetic, monumental, breakneck, romantic and unforgettable.
“Mammoth, marvellous … Hysterically funny and giddyingly imagined, this is a novel of serious intent … Levin is both fascinated by violence and fascinating about it”
scotsman
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“Manic, articulate, full of passions, courageous in its form and very funny”
George Saunders
“Adam Levin’s book is the real thing, I think. It appeals to the young readers who like formal invention and ambition … But there’s also real substance there”
Dave Eggers
“Evocative of David Foster Wallace … full of death-defying sentences, manic wit, exciting provocations and simple human warmth.”
rolling Stone
“The Only Kid Genius Novel You’ll Ever Need”
the Millions
Adam Levin
Adam Levin’s stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s and Esquire. Winner of the 2003 Tin House/Summer Literary Seminars Fiction Contest and the 2004 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize, in 2011 he won the Independent Bookseller’s Award and the NYPL Young Lion’s Award for THE INSTRUCTIONS, and was a finalist for the Jewish Book of the Year Award. His acclaimed collection of short stories, Hot Pink, was published by McSweeney’s this year. He lives in Chicago with his parrot, Gogol.