Nathan Hill is an exceptional storyteller. I wish he would have had more faith in his writing skill and had said less? Oh, for the want of an editor.

Hill worried that he would only get to write one book in his life and he wanted to 'say it all'. As a result this 'tragicomedy' is all those feelings wrapped up into one very long book. My biggest take away was that he tried to pack the book with everything that enraged, irritated, frustrated, and infuriated him in life. It is fascinating to hear the author's own words about his work. However, most importantly, before you decide on the book do an internet search for interviews done by Hill when the book was published. At times it almost felt like different writers were at work. There wasn't a clear voice that led the reader through this 20+ hour book. First, to me, it felt a bit like a collection of creative writing exercises that were just strung together into a book. I have just a few thoughts to add here about the book. As you can see by my lack of stars this wasn't for me. There are plenty of excellent reviews here on audible for this book. As he does so, Samuel will confront not only Faye's losses but also his own lost love and will relearn everything he thought he knew about his mother and himself.įrom the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago and beyond, The Nix explores - with sharp humor and a fierce tenderness - the resilience of love and home, even in times of radical change. To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew, secrets that stretch across generations and have their origin all the way back in Norway, home of the mysterious Nix. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: She's facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel's help. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high school sweetheart. Now she's reappeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the Internet, and inflames a politically divided country. He hasn't seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy.

It's 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson - college professor, stalled writer - has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. In Nathan Hill's remarkable first novel, a Nix is anything you love that one day disappears, taking with it a piece of your heart. In Norwegian folklore it is a spirit who sometimes appears as a white horse that steals children away.

The nix book