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A single Black lawyer puts her career and personal moral code at risk when she moves in with her coffee entrepreneur boyfriend and his doomsday-prepping roommates in a novel that's packed with tension, curiosity, humor, and wit from a writer with serious comedy credentials
In the wake of her parents' death, Aretha, a habitually single Black lawyer, has had only one obsession in life—success—until she falls for Aaron, a coffee entrepreneur. Moving into his Brooklyn brownstone to live along with his Hurricane Sandy-traumatized, illegal-gun-stockpiling, optimized-soy-protein-eating, bunker-building roommates, Aretha finds that her dreams of making partner are slipping away, replaced by an underground world, one of selling guns and training for a doomsday that's maybe just around the corner.
For readers of Victor LaValle's The Changeling, Paul Beatty's The Sellout, and Zakiya Harris's The Other Black Girl, The Survivalists is a darkly humorous novel from a smart and relevant new literary voice that's packed with tension, curiosity and wit, and unafraid to ask the questions most relevant to a new generation of Americans: Does it make sense to climb the corporate ladder? What exactly are the politics of gun ownership? And in a world where it's nearly impossible for young people to earn enough money to afford stable housing, what does it take in order to survive?
"An ambitious Black lawyer gets sucked into the extralegal schemes of Brooklyn preppers in this first novel by a former writer for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah...Cauley's experience as a Manhattan antitrust lawyer infuses the office scenes with authentically cutthroat competition, and her comedy-writing chops shine in hilariously succinct characterizations...But what really sets this debut novel apart is its finely tuned balance between extremes: humor and drama, conspiracy and reason, careful preparation and total chaos. Funny and fresh, Cauley's prose moves dynamic characters through a vivid, living New York City." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Well-crafted...Aretha is a successful Black corporate attorney assigned to squash a bunch of homeowners' insurance claims following Superstorm Sandy. Meanwhile, after countless failed dates, she meets and falls in love with coffee entrepreneur Aaron, who lives with his business partner, Brittany, in the Brooklyn house they collectively own...Cauley's understanding of plot is impeccable and she keeps the tension taut as Aretha gets more involved with the group...It's a good story." - Publishers Weekly
"This debut by former Daily Show writer Cauley is compulsively readable as it tracks Aretha's dizzying downward spiral with incisive observation, logic, and dark humor and delves into the perils of the thrill of the fringe and the limits of anyone's power to control their environment." - Booklist
"The Survivalists welcomes readers into a world that many may not have known existed but will want more of by the time the last page is read--the world of the young, Black, urban prepper....Laced with elements of crime, palpable suspense, witty banter and fascinating characters, The Survivalists will appeal to readers of many genres. Kashana Cauley, an insightfully sharp writer, has written a novel that will entertain, captivate and stimulate thoughtful discussion." - Shelf Awareness
"Kashana Cauley understands all the possible ways in which our lives—relationships, roommates, jobs—can go suddenly, absurdly, inexorably, almost thrillingly wrong. If there was such a thing as required reading for living through the twenty-first century in America, I'd put The Survivalists near the top of the list. I loved it." - Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
"Kashana Cauley's novel The Survivalists is beautifully written. With language that is smart, economical and clear she renders a story that is about relationships and our culture. I love this character Aretha, her observations, her arguments, her irony. This a nice piece of work." - Percival Everett, author of The Trees
"The brilliant and outrageously funny Kashana Cauley shines her laser on all the things that make our country suck, but her wit and calm intelligence make The Survivalists such a warm hot toddy of a novel." - Gary Shteyngart
This information about The Survivalists 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.
Kashana Cauley is a former Midtown antitrust lawyer and Brooklyn resident. She is a writer for the Fox comedy The Great North, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and a GQ contributor. She's written for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Pod Save America on HBO as well as The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone, and has published fiction in Esquire, Slate, Tin House, and The Chronicles of Now. Kashana now lives in Los Angeles.
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