Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, Patrick Cottrell
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, Patrick Cottrell
1 Rating(s)
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Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

Author: Patrick Cottrell

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Unabridged: 6 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/14/2017

Synopsis

Helen Moran is thirty-two years old, single, childless, college educated, and partially employed as a guardian of troubled young people in New York. She is accepting a furniture delivery in her shared studio apartment when her uncle calls to break the news: Helen’s adoptive brother is dead.According to the Internet, there are six possible reasons why her brother might have killed himself. But Helen knows better: she knows that six reasons is only shorthand for “the abyss.” Helen also knows that she alone is qualified to launch a serious investigation into his death, so she purchases a one-way ticket to Milwaukee. There, as she searches her childhood home and attempts to uncover why someone would choose to die, she will face her estranged family, her brother’s few friends, and the overzealous grief counselor, Chad Lambo; she may also discover what it truly means to be alive.A bleakly comic tour de force that’s by turns poignant, uproariously funny, and viscerally unsettling, this debut novel has shades of Bernhard, Beckett, and Bowles—and it announces the singular voice of Patrick Cottrell.

About Patrick Cottrell

Patrick Cottrell’s work has appeared in BOMB, Gulf Coast, and Black Warrior Review, among other places. He lives in Los Angeles.

About Nancy Wu

Nancy Wu has narrated audiobooks since 2004, winning three AudioFile Earphones Awards. A New York theater, television, and film actor, she has recorded in studios all over the world—from Italy to Switzerland to Thailand. Her credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Hope & Faith, All My Children, Made for Each Other, and the Oscar-nominated film Frozen River.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Justin

A highly memorable narrator goes through stages of grief via intriguing, bizarre methods. Compact and brilliantly written, even hilarious at times, but loses a star because it wasn’t particularly entertaining.......more

Goodreads review by Paul

Reposted in acknowledgement of Patrick Cottrell's Whiting award The Committee's nomination reads: Patrick Cottrell’s Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is a giddy, furious wallop of a novel. Casting the reader into the tense space between humor and horror, Cottrell engages deeply with repulsion, disgust, anti......more

Goodreads review by Kevin

Add Patty Yumi Cottrell to my list of favorite writers right now! Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is so engrossing and well-balanced, the way it blends the dark world of private depression and alarming humor reminds me of Miriam Toews or the films of Noah Baumbach. I'm sort of at a loss for words on how......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

When Helen Moran learns of her adoptive brother's suicide, she returns home to her adoptive parents for the first time in years and launches her own metaphysical investigation into his suicide. What you need to understand here is that Helen is one of the oddest characters you will ever encounter. No......more

Quotes

“Engaging and humorous, Wu offers a personal and wry reading…Wu has a natural rhythm and flow to her reading…[and] brings sensitivity and intelligence to this portrait of an elusive and eccentric woman.” AudioFile

“The powerful tale of a complex character confronting psychological demons, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is a riveting experience, masterfully performed by theater, television, and film actress Nancy Wu.” Midwest Book Review

“Stellar…Complex and mysterious, yet, in the end, deeply human and empathetic.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Helen’s foggy view of reality is a dark, dark comedic well, and debut novelist Cottrell tells [the] story with gutsy style, glowing sentences, and true feeling.” Booklist

“Cottrell’s prose…draws the reader right into the heart of this wonderfully spiky hedgehog of a book…[and] what is ultimately a tremendously moving act of imagination.” Helen Oyeyemi, author of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

“In this completely absorbing novel of devastation and estrangement…[Cottrell’s] voice is unflinching, unforgettable, and animated with a restless sense of humor.” Catherine Lacey, author of Nobody Is Ever Missing

“Sorry to Disrupt the Peace had me [feeling]…ebullient and spent, grateful to be reminded that life is only funny and gorgeous because life is also strange and sad.” Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls

“Cottrell’s adoption of the rambling and specific absurd…[is] about a way of being in the world, an always new and necessary way to contend with this garbage that surrounds us, these false portraits of our hearts and minds. This book is not a diversion—it’s a lifeline.” Jesse Ball, author of How to Set a Fire and Why

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Pick
  • LitHub Pick
  • Barnes & Noble Discover Award
  • Independent Book Publishers Award
  • Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year
  • Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
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