Vacuum in the Dark

 FROM THE AUTHOR OF BIG SWISSFrom the Whiting Award-winning author of Pretend I’m Dead comes a new hilarious, edgy, and brilliant one-of-a kind novel, for fans of Sally Rooney and Joshua Ferris Twenty-six-year-old cleaner Mona has just had a bad break up with a boyfriend named Mr Disgusting (don't ask...) But her plans for a fresh start go awry when she meets a new man, this one called Dark. He's probably not ideal boyfriend material: a little bit arrogant and a little bit conceited. Oh, and a little bit married. Wacky, outspoken and one-of-a-kind, Mona is on a mission to escape her past. But she's about to discover that it's easier said than done... Hilarious and shocking, exuberant and compassionate, Vacuum in the Dark is the perfect antidote to the times we live in.

'This novel is a joy: truly laugh-out-loud funny, while staying grounded and dignified.', 'By turns nutty and forlorn... Brash, deadpan, and achingly troubled, Mona emerges as that problematic friend you’re nonetheless always thrilled to see.', 'Beagin's attention to interiors and dialogue is impressive and she manages to capture the intimate portraits of her characters with deft skill... For fans of Jade Sharma and Ottessa Moshfegh.', ‘We all have a companion voice in our heads. Never more so when life is unpleasant but we can't really change anything. How lucky we'd be if that voice was Jen Beagin's. Honest (sometimes brutal), compassionate and always able to pick out what's funny in the darkest spot. Vacuum in the Dark had me grinning in recognition and laughing even as I winced.’, 'Energetic... These adventures open up into larger questions of Mona's own stalled artistic ambitions and a reckoning with her estranged mother – issues refracted with black humor and a sense of timing that rarely slackens... The escapades are underpinned by a strong voice that seems to have seen everyone's worst, and to have nothing left to conceal.'

Jen Beagin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and has published stories in Juked and Faultline, among other journals and literary magazines. In 2017, she was awarded a prestigious Whiting Award for her debut novel Pretend I'm Dead. She lives in New York.