THE NIX

An ambitious, bittersweet, wholly inventive debut that transports the reader through one family's experience over generations and disparate geographies, and through cultural moments such as World War II Norway, the Chicago Riots of 1968, the Gulf War, Occupy Wall Street, and the virtual tundra of the Wintersaber Glaciers in the multi-player online gaming world of "Elfquest".

Samuel Anderson-Andreson’s mother left his family when he was a boy. So it is a surprise when she re-enters his life some twenty years later, having made headlines for hurling stones at a conservative presidential candidate at a rally. Stalled as a writer who peaked early, Samuel spends his days playing video games and teaching literature poorly. Under pressure from his publisher to deliver on a ten-year-old book contract, he sets out instead to write the story of his mother’s life—a plan that will capitalize on her fame, and give him the satisfaction of portraying her publicly in the worst possible way. Instead, as he researches her story and excavates through family history, he finds answers that force him to reevaluate all that he thought he knew about his mother, and himself. This is a moving and often funny novel of mothers and sons, of teen-age love triangles, of the Midwestern suburbs, and Choose Your Own Adventure stories, The Nix is a book of wide narrative sweep that reaches all the way to Hammerfest Norway, the Northernmost city on the planet, where we meet the titular Nix of Norse mythology. The Nix also uses a single reoccurring photograph to unravel the mystery of Samuel’s mother’s past. Nathan Hill’s short stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, Fiction, AGNI, The Denver Quarterly, The Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, Fugue, and many other journals. He was the winner of Fiction’s Annual Story Prize, the winner of a 2015 Artist Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a finalist for the Donald Barthelme Prize. In 2014, The Iowa Review nominated him for a Pushcart Prize, his second nomination. He holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, and is now an assistant professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.