Real Life is a tender, deeply-felt, perfectly-paced novel about solitude and society, sexuality and race. It explores what the past means and, with brilliance and sympathy, dramatises the intricacies of love and grief. -- Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
With extraordinary intimacy, generosity, exactitude and candour, Brandon Taylor's Real Life depicts a highly discomforting weekend in the life of a biomedical grad student and, in so doing, exposes the enormous chasm between one person and their lover, friend, lab mate, acquaintance, fellow citizen. A nuanced, devastating and singular novel. -- Caoilinn Hughes, author of Orchid and the Wasp
I devoured Real Life in a couple of sittings. The prose shines and sings, Taylor affording complexity and nuance to his characters in this very assured debut. -- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water
'This book blew my head and heart off. For a debut novelist to disentangle and rebraid intimacy, terror, and joy this finely seems like a myth. But that, and so much more, is what Brandon Taylor has done in Real Life. The future of the novel is here and Brandon Taylor is that future's name.' -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
'Real Life is a gorgeous work of art, and the introduction of a singular new voice. Through Wallace, the book explores the tension of a person trying to become himself while surrounded by people who can see him only as their own projection. Even as Brandon Taylor dives beneath the level of polite surface interaction and into the ache of what people conceal from one another, or reveal only as weaponry, his sharply rendered observations make it a true pleasure to spend time in this book's world.' -- Danielle Evans, author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
'Real Life is a debut of wondrous grace and power. Brandon Taylor arrives as a force. Able to see the moments between moments, and the magic that lies there, with an eye so precise reading him feels, in some ways, like seeing for the first time. A stunning arrival.' -- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black
'Real Life asks questions many of us shy from: Who is entitled to pain? How useful is an apology? Can sharing our feelings free us from them? . . . Amid the flurry of new novels drifting down like so many balloons, Real Life is the one weighted with confetti. -- The Paris Review
'There is writing so exceptional, so intricately crafted that it demands reverence. The intimate prose of Brandon Taylor's exquisite debut novel, Real Life, offers exactly that kind of writing. He writes so powerfully about so many things - the perils of graduate education, blackness in a predominantly white setting, loneliness, desire, trauma, need. Wallace, the man at the center of this novel, is written with nuance and tenderness and complexity . . . Truly, this is stunning work from a writer who wields his craft in absolutely unforgettable ways.' --Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
