A Brilliant Novel in the Works
Yuvi’s debut novel is available online and wherever neurotic books are sold.
What Other Writers Are Saying
“Yuvi Zalkow writes like the secret love child of the smartest person you’ve ever met and the weirdo who lives down the block. In A Brilliant Novel in the Works, he mines the territory between heartbreak and hilarity with a voice so original it’s as if he made the territory up. His prose is wise and perceptive, generous and bold, funny and tender. The truest thing I can say about this ambitiously realized debut is: you must read this.” – Cheryl Strayed, author of WILD, TORCH, and TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
“If you buy just one book this year, consider resting this book on top of it. Yuvi Zalkow is a writer I’m going to watch from a safe distance.” – Gary Shteyngart, author of SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY, ABSURDISTAN, and THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE’S HANDBOOK
“Yuvi Zalkow brilliantly navigates the territory between your head and your heart, and down to your privates.” – Lidia Yuknavitch, author of CHRONOLOGY OF WATER and DORA: A HEADCASE
“A Brilliant Novel in the Works punched my heart while massaging my brain. For this beautiful novel I am proud to stand up on a desk, anywhere, anytime, without pants.” – G. Xavier Robillard, author of CAPTAIN FREEDOM and DEADFELLAS
“A Brilliant Novel in the Works is an extremely smart and beautiful book. It will mess with your mind, in a good way, and show you what’s inside your heart. All while making you laugh. Read it before your friends do… so you can say you discovered Yuvi Zalkow.” – Scott Sparling, author of WIRE TO WIRE
“Fuck writing a blurb – I just want to read this book all over again.” – Joanna Rose, author of LITTLE MISS STRANGE
This book was chosen as a Rumpus Book Club pick (July 2012).
Excerpts
Listen to the beginning of the novel:
Or hear about Yuvi’s problems in the bedroom:
Or hear about Yuvi’s shameful fantasies from the fifth grade:
Reviews & Interviews
The Oregonian: Debut novel gives heartfelt turn to metafiction: Zalkow’s novel transcends what could have been a can-I-do-it exercise in metafiction to instead offer a funny and heartfelt meditation on the fear of failure.
Jewniverse: Does Jewish Equal Neurotic?Though Yuvi Zalkow the character will drive you crazy, Yuvi Zalkow the author will charm you entirely.
Rat Race Refuge: For those that like to read about writers, this is a must read title… and for anyone who is interested in reading about real people struggling in a real world where truth is often weirder than fiction, A Brilliant Novel in the Works is highly recommended.
Mikes on Mics: Are we done yet? with Yuvi Zalkow (audio podcast)
Nylon Admiral: A Brilliant Novel in the Works Book Review…the final chapter absolutely tore my heart out. It was beautiful, melodic, poetic, fascinating and a completely perfect conclusion… I’m sitting here in tears just remembering it, and it’s a scene that’ll live in my mind for a long time yet…
About The Novel
When Yuvi’s wife finds him in his underwear, standing on top of his desk, she isn’t terribly impressed with him and his writing habits.But Yuvi worries. He has a wife who wants things he can’t give, an editor who wants a book he can’t deliver, a brother-in-law with a gut disease that he can’t fix, and dead parents who stubbornly remain dead.As the structure of Yuvi’s novel falls apart, so does his life. His novel and his life blend together as he struggles to pull out of the mess. He revisits the fragments of his unreconciled past and his pantsless present, traveling from his suburban Jewish home in Atlanta to the North Carolina mountains of his father’s childhood, to several hospital waiting rooms, to the living room of a grieving Palestinian man.Funny, shame-filled, and heartbreaking, A Brilliant Novel in the Works is the utterly original debut novel from Yuvi Zalkow.
Are You Still Here???
In that case, check out this video about the making of the book…
Are you STILL here!?!?! Well that’s a little embarrassing… You could check out Yuvi’s other novel (I Only Cry with Emoticons) or his other published stories, though we wouldn’t advise it.