The Joy and Privilege of Growing Up in an Indie Bookstore
"A pauper in the material world, I was a sultan in the world of ideas." Erik Hoel (@erikphoel) on his formative years in the shelves of his mother's bookstore, The Jabberwocky."
And yes, he is the son of Sue Little, the owner.
The Revelations, not unlike its main character, is ambitious and abrasive, challenging and disarming. Bursting with ideas, ranging from Greek mythology to the dark realities of animal testing, to some of the biggest unanswered questions facing scientists today, The Revelations is written in muscular, hypnotic prose, and its cyclically dreamlike structure pushes the boundaries of literary fiction. Erik Hoel has crafted a stunning debut of rare power—an intense look at cutting-edge science, consciousness, and human connection.
"I have been writing and reading daily for decades, and I have never read anything like Erik Hoel's remarkable debut novel. . . . The Revelations is a deeply compelling, thought-provoking, and frankly, unforgettable work, one that heralds the arrival of an important new voice among us."
-Andre Dubus III / bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog
"Sex. Death. Rioting in the streets and agressive self-lobotomy: brains in vats and the nature of consciousness itself. Dense, literary, and hallucinogenic, The Revelations is an impassioned argument over beers and amphetamines. It will be stuck in my brain for some time to come -- Peter Watts, Hugo-winning author of Blindsight and Starfish
"Erik Hoel has crafted an audacious literary thriller. The Revelations is hilarious and deeply serious, heady and carnal and intellectual, all at once --Catherine Chung, author of The Tenth Muse
"In this wild and lyrical debut, Erik Hoel merges the dark prescience of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with the feverish writing of David Foster Wallace, creating a neon-colored cocktail of sci fi, murder mystery, and love story that is wholly of the twenty-first century. I'll never think about the brain -- or New York City! -- the same way again." -- Katie Bolick, bestselling author of Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own
Erik Hoel, a graduate of Triton High School, received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Madison-Wisconsin. He is currently a research assistant professor at Tufts University and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in the NeuroTechnology Lab, and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is a 2018 Forbes “30 under 30 most important people in science in the U.S.” for his neuroscientific research on consciousness and also a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow.
"A pauper in the material world, I was a sultan in the world of ideas." Erik Hoel (@erikphoel) on his formative years in the shelves of his mother's bookstore, The Jabberwocky."
Vicki Hendrickson and Jennifer Entwistle, co-chairs of the Newburyport Literary Festival, ask you to mark your calendar for the 2021 event April 23, 24 and 25.
Welcome to our portal on the web! From here you can look up and order books just by using the toolbar at the top of the page. You can search by title, author, or ISBN number. You can order books to be shipped directly to you or order them to be picked up at the store (we'll even wrap them for you). Special order books generally arrive within 2 to 3 days. We can even track down hard to find out of print books for you.
"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe."
Lewis Carroll
Throughout our store you'll find books that have been highly recommended by our staff. We call them Brilligs and you'll find them in this section. Click through, get to know us, and see what we've been reading.
Forty-nine years ago I opened Jabberwocky (the Little Bookshop) on a wing and a prayer in a tiny space of about 350 square feet in the not-yet-renovated Newburyport, with the idealistic belief that if I offered the best books I could find, the books I loved, then the store would prosper. Today, as one of the largest independent bookstores on the Northshore, we still believe this. Our goal is quite simply to offer the community the most unique, the most beautiful, the most interesting, the most timely, and the most entertaining books.