Brass

Reviews

“Lustrous . . . a tale alive with humor and gumption, of the knotty, needy bond between a mother and daughter . . . [Brass] marks the arrival of a writer whose work will stand the test of time.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“An exceptional debut novel, one that plumbs the notion of the American Dream while escaping the clichés that pursuit almost always brings with it . . . [Xhenet] Aliu delivers a living, breathing portrait of places left behind.”—The Boston Globe

“The writing blazes on the page. . . . The narrative is also incredibly funny, sly, and always popping with personality. . . . So much about the book is also extraordinarily timely, especially when it focuses on class and culture, and what they really mean. . . . Yes, we might be lost from who and what we really are. But, as this audacious novel shows, we can—and we must—keep struggling to make our own place in the world.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Aliu is witty and unsparing in her depiction of the town and its inhabitants, illustrating the granular realities of the struggle for class mobility.”—The New Yorker

“Brass simmers with anger—the all too real byproduct or working hard for not enough, of being a woman in a place where women have little value, of getting knocked down one too many times. But when the simmer breaks into a boil, Aliu alchemizes that anger into love, and in doing so creates one of the most potent dramatizations of the bond between mother and daughter that I’ve ever read. . . . I left this book with the sure sense that the characters were alive beyond its pages, though I wouldn’t dare try to guess what they are up to—Elsie and Lulu are too real for that.”—The New York Times Book Review

“[A] lyrically insightful debut novel by Xhenet Aliu, telling in sharp, pithy parallel narratives the story of a waitress in small-town Connecticut who falls in love with a charismatic Albanian immigrant and the story of her grown daughter . . . Aliu makes both these stories immediately touching and weaves them together in ways that are surprising without being sappy.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Full of humor, love, and empathy, Brass is a stunner of a debut, making us excited for all still to come from Aliu.”—Nylon

“Aliu writes a story of love, family, and the search for an origin story, set against the decaying backdrop of a post-industrial town.”—The Millions

“In mordant, biting prose, [Xhenet Aliu] interweaves the stories of a mother and a daughter living in a fading Connecticut town they both hopelessly long to escape from.”—HuffPost

“A boldly witty and astute inquiry into the nature-versus-nurture debate, the inheritance of pain, and the dream of transcendence.”—Booklist (starred review)

“This glimmering debut novel reflects on mother-daughter connections, abandonment and resilience, and dreams that endure despite the odds.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Brass is one of our favorite mother/daughter stories of 2018 so far.”—Hello Giggles Expand reviews