This has been an incredibly difficult year for the nation, the Newburyport community, and for the store itself. But thanks to the efforts of the community, The Jabberwocky has survived. To celebrate we are throwing a party on our 49th birthday featuring our own Erik Hoel, a debut novelist and neuroscientist (he is also the son of Susan Little, the owner of The Jabberwocky). This outdoor party will allow us to safely say thank you. We want to thank all our friends who donated to the GoFundMe account, or simply sent checks, all with kind words and well-wishes. We want to say thank you to all those who kept us going during the three months we had to keep our doors closed with just phone and web orders. It is very clear that The Jabberwocky very much belongs to the whole community.
At the party there will be delicious free food and music....and, a sense of hope for the future. Erik Hoel, a former staff member and one of Forbes 30 under 30 most important people in science, will sign books and discuss his highly-praised debut novel The Revelations, a literary murder mystery set in the world of neuroscience. There will be a reading, a book signing, and an incredibly cute joint Q&A discussion between Erik Hoel and his mother Susan Little about literature, science, bookselling, and community. And then after there will be dancing!
This event is free and open to the public. It starts at 6:30PM, July 3rd.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erik Hoel received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a research assistant professor at Tufts University and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University in the NeuroTechnology Center and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Hoel is a 2018 Forbes “30 Under 30” for his neuroscientific research on consciousness and a Center for Fiction NYC Emerging Writer Fellow. The Revelations is his debut novel. He lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
ABOUT THE BOOK
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 novel of rare power—an intense look at cutting-edge science, consciousness, and human connection—and has cemented himself as a powerful new voice in contemporary fiction.
"With the ear of a poet and the eye of a neuroscientist, Hoel pioneers a new marriage between the enchantments of literature and the challenges of modern brain science."
—David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Stanford, bestselling author of Sum and Livewired
“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 aggressive 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 Award–winning author of Blindsight and Starfish
"Neuroscientist Hoel’s dizzying, impressive debut unloads a series of nefarious plots. . . Fast and furious, this mind-stretching novel makes the grade." —Publishers Weekly
"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."
—Kate Bolick, bestselling author of Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own