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In this stylish and provocative novel, a young artist struggles to find her way in New York City while navigating strained relationships, the reappearance of an ex, and her burgeoning sense of self. A mess, of course, ensues.
Maggie is on the brink. Her MFA thesis—a vast canvas of twenty women suspended between life and death—is met with polite confusion, sending her into the throes of an obsessive work spiral. She's ignoring calls from her frantic Turkish mother and drifting apart from her marriage-material boyfriend, Rob, who, lately, spends every waking moment at the office, including some suspiciously late nights. To make matters worse, her brother John (perfect, doctor) is dating Maggie's art-world rival: a performance artist who constantly seems to be skyrocketing toward fame even after renouncing her name to be called simply "the Artist."
But it's when Maggie's ex reappears that her forced composure starts to slip. A smooth-talking art critic with power and charm, Rakib sees Maggie in a way that completely mystifies her. Then come whispers that her painting might be nominated for a grant that could launch her career. With deadlines looming, her relationship with Rob faltering, and her sense of self in flux, Maggie begins to question not just her art but the entire life she's been trying to build.
Set against the push and pull of immigrant family expectations, the competitive world of contemporary art, and the relentless uncertainty of one's late twenties, Good News is a mordantly clever and emotionally resonant debut that will appeal to readers of Lily King, Sarah Thankam Mathews, and Coco Mellors.
"A deftly rendered but flawed portrait of an artist as a young woman." —Kirkus Reviews
"Brahme's appealing voice-driven debut finds Turkish art student Maggie Arif navigating a love triangle in New York City while struggling to complete an ambitious painting ... Brahme's character work is top notch." ―Publishers Weekly
"A familiar exploration into the unease of early adulthood and the winding road to self-fulfillment." ―Booklist
"Good News is about the complicated work of finding one's way—as a woman, as an artist, as a daughter, as a lover. Alexa Brahme's debut, like Sally Rooney's, is a clear-eyed exploration of passion and discontent in equal measure. I rooted for Maggie all the way through." ―Emma Straub, author of This Time Tomorrow
"[A] punchy critique of high art, and a revealing look at what it takes to find yourself as a young artist. Women are the driving force of this richly realized story, and [Brahme] excels at making their relationships as nuanced, complicated and fulfilling as they are in life." ―Mira Jacob, author of The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
This information about Good News 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.
Alexa Yasemin Brahme is a writer from southern California. She received her MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Robert J. Dau PEN Award, and Best of the Net. She currently lives in Brooklyn, where she is a bookseller at Books Are Magic. Good News is her first novel.
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