Named one of the best books of 2017 by Chicago Review of Books
Recommended summer reading by * NPR * BBC * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * HelloGiggles * The Observer * Chicago Review of Books * Chicago Magazine * PureWow * Murder & Mayhem * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Grazia * Vulture *
“Anyone who became addicted to the rolling emotions, betrayals, and violent showdowns of Breaking Bad will be seduced by Augustus Rose’s debut . . . Fiendishly intricate and relentlessly suspenseful.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“A fast-paced adventure . . . as cleverly written as it is illuminating and deeply referential, and once you start we dare you to try to put it down.”
—Harper’s Bazaar
“This is one of those rare books that you can recommend to anyone you know, even that person who ‘doesn’t read.’ The most must-read of all must-reads.”
—Marie Claire
“[An] uncanny, near sublime first novel. . . . A delight.”
—BBC
“First novels as rich and enchanting as Augustus Rose’s The Readymade Thief don’t come around too often, and when they do, they rarely combine secret societies, teenage runaways, and Marcel Duchamp.”
—Vanity Fair
“[A] viscerally and intellectually exciting novel . . . whose punning title indicates the layered complexity of this well-written text.”
—Wall Street Journal
“[A] coolly creepy debut.”
—People
“If you’re looking for an underrated debut that is as fast-paced and suspenseful as The DaVinci Code but way smarter, Augustus Rose’s novel will thrill you.”
—Vulture
“[A] strange and wonderful debut . . . wildly unpredictable, big-hearted, and always fascinating.”
—The Seattle Times
“A fast-paced, plot-driven novel with a resolute heroine and a lot of history . . . Readers who enjoy literary puzzles, or who are looking for something a little different, should look no farther than The Readymade Thief.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Complex, twisty and full of suspense.”
—Daily Mail
“Rewarding, like unearthing the Easter eggs in a Lynchian masterpiece.”
—Murder & Mayhem
“In his highly addictive and multi-faceted first novel, Augustus Rose pits an irrepressible and gritty young heroine against a sinister group of fanatics. The Readymade Thief is a kickass debut from start to finish.”
—Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad
“The Readymade Thief is my favorite kind of book: an improbable one. The novel is a map of things—urban exploration, secret societies, the city of Philadelphia, Marcel Duchamp, very possibly the Home Alone movies—and if those things don’t seem to fit together, well, that’s the magic of the improbable book, and the transmutation of obsessions, by energy and intellect, into something wholly new: a novel that’s unexpected, uncategorizable, unputdownable.”
—Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
“The Readymade Thief is a brilliant, suspenseful, and cinematic novel with an unforgettable heroine and a big story about art, the nature of consciousness, and all points in between. Be prepared to lose yourself in it.”
—Edan Lepucki, author of California and Woman No. 17
“I fell more than a little bit in love not just with Lee—the gutsy protagonist of Augustus Rose’s gorgeous debut novel, The Readymade Thief—but with the book itself. It’s a hypnotizing amalgamation of love story and mystery. I am in awe.”
—Hannah Pittard, author of Listen to Me
“In The Readymade Thief, Augustus Rose shows that he has one of the steadiest hands in fiction. How else to explain how effortlessly he complicates and expands the mystery at the heart of the novel, adding Marcel Duchamp, the Darknet, Urban Exploration, and a unified field theory along the way to such amazing effect. Each time I thought I had found my way to solid ground, another level opened up, and I eagerly tunneled deeper. Rose has crafted something memorable, crackling with energy, a truly wonderful tale.”
—Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang
“A rewarding novel full of pleasures and surprises. Every time I thought I knew where the story was going, it took me somewhere stranger and deeper than I could have imagined. A rich, heady mix of ideas and thrills.”
—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“Complex on many intellectual levels, drawing heavily on theories of art history and physics, and the mystery is deep and satisfying in both its unpredictability and its culmination. The sheer scope is impressive, as are Rose's evocative descriptions of underground and abandoned places, reminiscent of David Lynch's films.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A richly detailed intellectual thriller . . . Lee is an excellent character, and the many shadowy settings she travels through make for a fascinating vision of an alternate, underground Philadelphia.”
—Publishers Weekly
07/01/2017
It's a bit of a challenge to describe this first novel, which feels a little like David Mitchell wrote The Da Vinci Code and mixed in a bit from Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers. Seventeen-year-old Lee Cuddy would probably be the first to tell you that she's no model kid. She steals, sells drugs, and has had more than her fair share of run-ins with the police. Still, she has good grades and plans for the future, including college with her best friend Edie. But when Lee takes the fall for a drug deal gone bad, her college plans evaporate and she finds herself homeless and on the run from both the law and a shady underground organization that believes she possesses something of great importance. Enter Tomi, a gifted hacker, who takes Lee under his wing and introduces her to urban exploration and the art world, all while evading those who pursue them. Rose has created an excellent twisty plot set against a richly textured backdrop, but his characters feel a bit sketched. We don't get to know Lee particularly well, and the people around her feel a bit like foils to help move the story along. But what a story it is! VERDICT Give this one to readers looking for an unputdownable literary summer escape. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/17.]—Liz Kirchhoff, Barrington Area Lib., IL
2017-05-15
A young woman must outthink and outplay a group of men trying to uncover the deepest secrets of the universe (with the help of clues left by Marcel Duchamp) in Rose's debut novel.Lee has always felt invisible, taking advantage of this by shoplifting and dealing drugs to her high school classmates. When her friend Edie turns her in, Lee is sent to juvenile detention and then the psych ward, from which she manages to escape. Homeless, friendless, and directionless, Lee stumbles upon a group of other lost teens who live in the Crystal Castle under the control of a mysterious figure known as the Station Master. When she steals a strange object that turns out to be a work of art by Marcel Duchamp, Lee has no idea that she has attracted the obsessive interest of a shadowy and dangerous society that effectively worships Duchamp. They believe he left clues in his art that reveal the key to immortality, and they are willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone to decipher them. Together with her friend Tomi, an art fanatic who likes to creep around abandoned buildings, Lee fights to stay one step ahead of the Société Anonyme, which seems to have spies everywhere and which has determined that Lee herself is central to their dastardly plans. The novel is complex on many intellectual levels, drawing heavily on theories of art history and physics, and the mystery is deep and satisfying in both its unpredictability and its culmination. The sheer scope is impressive, as are Rose's evocative descriptions of underground and abandoned places, reminiscent of David Lynch's films. Lee, despite being a strong survivor, doesn't captivate, however. Her survival depends on her ability to be self-sufficient and to separate herself from people, which also estranges her from the reader. Admirably ambitious but lacking in soul.
