Overview

Early one morning, Will Heller, a sixteen-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, takes off on a fantastic and terrifying quest to save the world. Violet Heller, his frantic mother, is joined by Ali Lateef, a missing-persons specialist, in a desperate attempt to locate her son before psychosis claims him completely.

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The novel has a thriller-like pace, and Wray keeps us riveted and guessing, finding chilling rhetorical and pictorial equivalents for Will's uniquely dysfunctional perspective . . . The suspense is expertly maintained, straight through the novel's dreamlike climactic encounter and heart-wrenching final paragraph. The opening pages recall Salinger's Holden Caulfield, but the denouement and haunting aftertaste may make the stunned reader whisper Dostoevsky. Yes, it really is that good. -- Kirkus (starred) <br> John Wray is less interested in Lowboy's picaresque circuits than in his mental circuits, whose damaged condition is brilliantly, compassionately evoked in the novel . . . Wray is never boring, largely because he has an uncanny talent for ventriloquism, and he seems to know, with unerring authority, how to select and make eloquent the details of Lowboy's illness . . . What is impressive about the book is its control, and its humane comprehension of radical otherness . . .k

The novel has a thriller-like pace, and Wray keeps us riveted and guessing, finding chilling rhetorical and pictorial equivalents for Will's uniquely dysfunctional perspective...The suspense is expertly maintained, straight through the novel's dreamlike climactic encounter and heart-wrenching final paragraph. The opening pages recall Salinger's Holden Caulfield, but the denouement and haunting aftertaste may make the stunned reader whisper Dostoevsky. Yes, it really is that good. - Kirkus (starred) <br><p> Lowboy is uncompromising, gripping and generally excellent . . . One of the novel's many pleasures is just going along: putting yourself fully in the hands of the story and its author, being drawn in, gradually immersed, making the connections . . . By the time it all falls into place, the reader is long hooked and turning back is not an option . . . This is a meticulously constructed novel, immensely satisfying in the perfect, precise beat of its plot . . . I'd be proud to be seen reading this novel on the downtown 6, or anywhere else at all. --Charles Bock, The New York Times Book Review <br> A breathtaking journey. -- O, The Oprah Magazine <br> You'll tear through the pages . . . A lip-biting thriller to the finish. --Sarah Z. Wexler, Marie Claire <br> [Wray] succeeds with a brisk plot and odd moments of humor. The story's final grimness is tough, but it's hard not to admire this bullet train of a book for its chilling power. --Stacey Levine, Bookforum <br> Wray is an obviously gifted writer, who treatment of Will is a tour de force of empathy, style, and imagination. -- Booklist <br> John Wray's Lowboy is a psychotic, subterranean, environmentally conscious, coming-of-age novel. It is also an affecting and affectionate love letter to New York. Lowboy is John Wray at his highest. --Nathan Englander, author of Ministry of Special Cases <br> Through the windows of John Wray's rumbling express, we catch sight of the deep darkness that lives inside the human psyche. Lowboy is a riveting and disturbing ride, illuminating one adolescent boy's shadowy underground, and giving us glimpses of our own as well. - Colson Whitehead, author of Apex Hides the Hurt <br> America's most original young writer has given us a book for the ages. Compelling, compassionate, and deeply unsettling, Lowboy introduces us to the brilliant sixteen-year-old Will Heller, a hero as three-dimensional as any in recent fiction, a Holden Caulfield for our troubled times. --Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan <br> Wray's captivating third novel drifts between psychological realities while exploring the narrative poetics of schizophrenia. . . . Wray deploys brilliant hallucinatory visuals, including chilling descriptions of the subway system and an imaginary river flowing beneath Manhattan. In his previous works, Wray has shown that he's not a stranger to dark themes, and with this tightly wound novel, he reaches new heights. - Publishers Weekly (starred) <br> Wray presents a powerful and vivid portrait of Will's mental state, believably entering into his apocalyptic vision of the world. - Library Journal <br> Lowboy sucks you into the tunnels under NY and doesn't let you go until its perfect ending. Wray effortlessly portrays the cracked and distorted mind of his teenage hero. What a beguiling novel. -Tim Pears, authorof In The Place of Fallen Leaves <br> Comparisons to J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye or Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower are inevitable. --Karen E. Brooks-Reese, School Library Journal

&#8220;The novel has a thriller-like pace, and Wray keeps us riveted and guessing, finding chilling rhetorical and pictorial equivalents for Will&#8217;s uniquely dysfunctional perspective . . . The suspense is expertly maintained, straight through the novel&#8217;s dreamlike climactic encounter and heart-wrenching final paragraph.&nbsp; The opening pages recall Salinger&#8217;s Holden Caulfield, but the denouement and haunting aftertaste may make the stunned reader whisper &#8220;Dostoevsky.&#8221; Yes, it really is that good.&#8221; &#8212; Kirkus (starred) <br>&#8220;John Wray is less interested in Lowboy&#8217;s picaresque circuits than in his mental circuits, whose damaged condition is brilliantly, compassionately evoked in the novel . . . Wray is never boring, largely because he has an uncanny talent for ventriloquism, and he seems to know, with unerring authority, how to select and make eloquent the details of Lowboy&#8217;s illness . . . What is impressive about the book is

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