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The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book.
People Like Us is Jason Mott's electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason's life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don't let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt.
In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.
People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel.
Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/20/2025)
Just finished People Like Us by Jason Mott. Some of it felt like a replay of Hell of a Book (a book I really loved), but the ending chapters pulled it out of the doldrums for me. On audio, I'm...
-Robin_G
"A meta-novel that stings and touches the reader...The whole book seems the literary equivalent of a post-bop jazz performance, with oblique happenings that compel attention because of the book's antic energy and lyrical passages." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Mott's writing is funny, intelligent, and sharp as a knife....This book is full of action, suspense, and laughs. Its reflections about being a Black American in Europe are insightful. Jump in for a full-force, visceral ride." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Mott's satire is thoroughly uncompromising, which makes it all the more refreshing." –Publishers Weekly
"Part memoir, part travelogue, part fever dream, Mott's novel deploys wicked humor and pathos to explore issues around race, gun violence, fame and mental health." —Atlanta Journal Constitution
This information about People Like Us 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.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction has appeared in various literary journals. He was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize award and Entertainment Weekly listed him as one of their 10 "New Hollywood: Next Wave" people to watch.
He is the author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and "…hide behind me…" He is the author of three novels: The Returned, The Wonder of All Things, and The Crossing.
The Returned, Jason's debut novel, was adapted by Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, in association with Brillstein Entertainment and ABC. It aired on the ABC network ...
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