Nothing Special

(Hardback)

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A 2023 HIGHLIGHT FOR: THE TIMES * TELEGRAPH * STYLIST * GQ * GUARDIAN * HARPER'S BAZAAR * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING * WATERSTONES * i-D * IRISH TIMES * HUFFINGTON POST UK _______________ 'A blade-sharp coming-of-age novel' SPECTATOR 'Confirms Flattery as a bracingly original writer' IRISH INDEPENDENT 'In enviably elegant prose, she manages to be both arch and deadly serious' LOUISE KENNEDY _______________ A wildly original debut novel about two young women navigating the complex worlds of Andy Warhol's Factory, and coming of age in 1960s New York New York City, 1966. Seventeen-year-old Mae lives in a run-down apartment with her alcoholic mother and her mother's sometimes-boyfriend, Mikey. She is turned off by the petty girls at her high school, and the sleazy men she typically meets. When she drops out, she is presented with a job offer that will remake her world entirely: she is hired as a typist for the artist Andy Warhol. Warhol is composing an unconventional novel by recording the conversations and experiences of his many famous and alluring friends. Tasked with transcribing these tapes alongside several other girls, Mae quickly befriends Shelley and the two of them embark on a surreal adventure at the fringes of the countercultural movement. Going to parties together, exploring their womanhood and sexuality, this should be the most enlivening experience of Mae's life. But as she grows increasingly obsessed with the tapes and numb to her own reality, Mae must grapple with the thin line between art and voyeurism and determine how she can remain her own person as the tide of the sixties sweeps over her. Nothing Special is a whip-smart coming-of-age story about friendship, independence and the construction of art and identity, bringing to life the experience of young women in this iconic and turbulent moment. _______________ PRAISE FOR SHOW THEM A GOOD TIME: 'A masterclass . . . Bold, irreverent and agonisingly funny' Sally Rooney 'Announces the arrival of a brilliant talent' Financial Times 'Explores difficult questions about self-worth, agency and intimacy with thrilling sharpness' Sunday Times 'Demands repeated reading' Jon McGregor

Reviews

[A] blade-sharp coming-of-age debut novel . . . [Flattery] captures the absurdity and the pain, the texture of city streets and the squalid luxury, and brings a deadpan wit to the whole sex and drugs and Pop-art scene * Spectator *
This debut novel is that rare thing, an original, off-kilter coming-of-age story, in which life and art collide in unsettling ways * Mail on Sunday *
Nothing Special is as stylishly written as its predecessor Show Them a Good Time. Indeed there are shades of Saul Bellow, in her rendering of New York that shrieking cartoon hell . . . [Flattery] deserves only praise * Sunday Independent *
Nothing Special confirms Flattery as a bracingly original writer; her observations clear-eyed and cool-headed, never pretentious. Readers may be tempted to underline every other sentence in this striking debut from an exciting new voice * Irish Independent *
Flattery demonstrates here how she can shape on a larger scale and be incredibly inventive in the process . . . [Her] willingness to be ugly and merciless on the page is what makes her work so relentlessly engaging * Financial Times *
A riveting read about fame, myth-making and finding your own identity * Good Housekeeping *
Flattery is a keen observer of relational dynamics in groups of women, and how these connections can both support and strangle. Her characters feel complicated and real * Telegraph, Highlights for 2023 *
If youve ever found yourself obsessing over Edie Sedgwick (her biography by Jean Stein is a must-read) then Nothing Special will be right up your street. Set against 60s New York and Andy Warhols Factory, this is a coming-of-age story that conjures up the lure of the era * Stylist, Highlights for 2023 *
Nicole Flattery's treatment of determined, bewildered young women as they discover the vast distance between how they are perceived and how they feel themselves to be is brilliantly gloomy, droll and so out-of-body as to be real . . .They try on and take off their survival instincts like costumes, in a painful, beguiling, apt twist on art for arts sake. The authenticity of Flattery's work offers its own reassurance that sometimes art is good -- Caoilinn Hughes
There are many things to enjoy in Nicole Flattery's debut novel Mae is an engaging protagonist with a wit about her coming-of-age struggles * Independent *
A sharp portrait of New Yorks art scene in the sixties and one womans place in it. Through inventive prose, Flattery writes into history the under-celebrated voices, and she does it in a masterful way. A superb novel -- Elaine Feeney
In enviably beautiful prose, she manages to be both arch and deadly serious. Wonderful stuff. -- Louise Kennedy
Audacious, original and fully achieved this is a remarkable novel -- Kevin Barry
One of the most exciting releases of 2023 . . . A dizzying exploration of sex, freedom, art and voyeurism, seen through the coming-of-age of 17-year-old Mae. Deftly woven and captivating, it signals the arrival of a new literary talent * Harper's Bazaar, highlights for 2023 *
Told with dry wit and sharp observation, Nothing Special speaks in a profound and original way to our age of vacuous consumerism, our empty quests for self-discovery, and our parasitism on celebrity and trend . . . A bold and funny coming-of-age novel about the emptiness of the cult of self, the fetishisation of fame, and the aimless drift of late-stage capitalism -- Imogen Crimp, author of A VERY NICE GIRL
Flattery's sentences are astonishing. Their wit and ingenuity, the apt oddness of her metaphors, are addictive and relentlessly delightful, and then all of a sudden her language snaps into an exactness of feeling that knocks you sideways. A special, singular, blazingly original and truly achieved first novel -- Colin Barrett, author of YOUNG SKINS
I couldn't put this razor sharp, darkly funny coming-of-age story down -- Louisa Reid, author of THE POET
A wry, witty and wonderful novel from a brilliantly captivating storyteller -- Joseph OConnor
I derive so much energy from Nicole Flatterys writing. Nothing Special casts such a stylish and transportive spell, perhaps its better to dust off adjectives like marvelous and fabulous. Ill never again ride an escalator without thinking of this book -- Sloane Crosley

Author Bio

Nicole Flatterys work has been published in the London Review of Books, Stinging Fly, White Review, Dublin Review, New York Times, Sight & Sound Magazine, Winter Papers and the 2019 Faber anthology of new Irish writing. Her story 'Track' won the 2017 White Review Short Story Prize, and her story 'Parrot' won the Irish Book Awards Story of the Year prize in 2019. Her first book, the story collection Show Them a Good Time, won the 2020 London Magazine Prize for Debut Fiction and the Kate O'Brien Award.