A HERO OF OUR TIME

In this provocative, intelligent and fresh exploration of appropriation and identity in the vein of Hari Kunzru's White Tears mixed with the dark psychological humour of Ottessa Moshfegh, A HERO OF OUR TIME is a riveting critique of our society's fumbling attempts to reconcile race, identity, and power.

Osman Shah is the son of a professor but has been exiled from his own family after taking a job at AAP—a higher education automating firm. He's confronted by his ethical failings when Olivia Robinson, an efficient and manipulative new hire from an evangelical background, begins to take control of the company. Robinson uses her ostentatious support for Osman's subject position to launch herself, and gradually uses the identities of racialized employees as political tools in her ascent. The constantly self-ironizing Osman struggles to find a version of leadership he can accept and a stable vision of his own identity as he tries to expose Olivia's political machinations. Osman is a deeply drawn character, constantly self-critical and flawed in ways he never recognizes, but the reader will.

Award-winning author and screenwriter Naben Ruthnum's first novel Find You in the Dark, was an instant bestseller, an Arthur Ellis Awards finalist for Best First Novel and optioned for TV by eOne and sold in the UK/ANZ, Germany, Spain, and Azerbaijan. Now under development with Corus Entertainment, Naben is cowriting multiple episodes with showrunner Patrick Tarr. His latest thriller, Your Life Is Mine, also an instant bestseller, was recently optioned by Markham Street Productions. Ruthnum is cowriting his original series in development with Sphere Media called The Cuckoo Treatment. He is at work on two new thrillers under his Nathan Ripley pseudonym as well.