"This mesmerising story of a failed novelist compelled to ghost-write his way out of debt explores depression and psychedelic therapies with thought-provoking sway."
Brutally, bravely honest in its portrayal of depression, suicidal tendencies, failing to fulfil obligations, and failing to live up to one’s promise, William Brewer’s The Red Arrow also offers a luminous sense of hope that it is possible to emerge from the dark mist of depression experienced by his protagonist.
Our narrator was once a promising young writer with a big book deal to write a big American novel about a chemical spill in West Virginia. But, crippled by depression since childhood, he’s unable to write the book and winds up with a huge debt to his publisher. A way to work himself out of debt presents itself when an esteemed physicist requests that the narrator ghost-writes his memoirs: “the more of his life I write, the more of my life I get back”.
This is why the writer finds himself travelling through Italy with his wife, on a second honeymoon, but also on the trail of the physicist. As he digs deeper into his subject’s life, he peels back layers of own life, revealing what led him to this point, memories of his Italian grandparents, family arguments, a succession of obsessive distractions, worsening depression, and the transformative psychedelic treatments that saved him. His eventual meeting with the physicist is a devastating denouement - clever, unexpected and radiant.
| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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'Insightful and often hilarious . . . a dazzling head-trip of a novel' Nathan Hill, author of The Nix
When a once-promising young writer agrees to ghostwrite a famous physicist's memoir, his livelihood is already in jeopardy: plagued by debt, he's grown distant from his wife - asuccessful AI designer - and is haunted by an overwhelming sense of dread he describes as 'The Mist'.
Then, things get worse.
The physicist vanishes, leaving everything in limbo, including our narrator's sanity.
'Exquisite . . . Brewer's evocation of the Mist is among the most accurate and insightful depictions of depression I've ever read' Los Angeles Times
The Red Arrow features in the following genres: General Fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Interior life, Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes
The Red Arrow is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Red Arrow was written by William Brewer and published by John Murray an imprint of John Murray Press
The Red Arrow has 272 pages
£8.99
