Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2016
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In the anonymous office park of a modern software company, whip-smart software engineer Henry Hurt is a man in the middle: of life, of career, and of self-assessment. Mired in his corporate responsibilities, Henry's deathless office existence is torpedoed by the loss of his mother.
Haunted by her death, and by a strange angst he describes as "the pall," Henry seeks escape in a quest for love and purpose occasioned by a crisis in his company's fortunes. Dodging an Iago-like rival, one who stirs him to the decisive action of the book, he risks his livelihood, endangers his bond with his family, and is forced finally to confront the urgent question of his life.
"Starred Review. Hipps'…writing is just about perfect: incisive, eloquent, philosophical, and witty by turns…Like Richard Ford, Hipps finds illumination about the meaning of life everywhere he looks. The arrival of a top-notch talent." - Kirkus
"Delightfully funny. The self-doubt, the inspired riffs on philosophy and inquiry, please on every single page. This is a carefully wrought report on How We Live Now. I am in awe of its deep intelligence." - Antonya Nelson, author of Funny Once
"The engine powering this highly original philosophical investigation is a prose as rich and lush as it is careful and precise." - Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves
"The Adventurist isn't so much a novel of corporate America as that of a man trying to live in hope and wonder, despite all of our natural losses." - Stewart O'Nan, author of Emily, Alone and West of Sunset
This information about The Adventurist was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
A former programmer, J. Bradford Hipps turned to fiction after a ten-year software career. He received his graduate degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, where he was awarded the Inprint Michener Prize. He lives with his wife and children in Texas.
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