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The Impossibly: A Novel
"Innovative, comic, bizarre and beautiful, The Impossibly reads as if Donald Barthelme were channeling Alain Robbe-Grillet, Samuel Beckett, Ben Marcus and reruns of Get Smart."--Time Out New York
When the anonymous narrator botches an assignment from the clandestine organization that employs him, everyone in his life becomes a participant in his punishment. In the end, he is called out of retirement for a final to seek and identify his own assassin. This edition includes an introduction by Percival Everett, an afterword by the author, and a "lost chapter."
Called "one of the most talented young writers on the American scene today" by Paul Auster, Laird Hunt is the author of four genre-bending novels and was a finalist for the 2010 PEN Center USA Award. Born in Singapore and educated at Indiana University and the Sorbonne in Paris, Hunt has lived in Tokyo, London, The Hague, New York, and on an Indiana farm. A former press officer at the United Nations and current faculty member at the University of Denver, he now lives in Boulder, Colorado.
When the anonymous narrator botches an assignment from the clandestine organization that employs him, everyone in his life becomes a participant in his punishment. In the end, he is called out of retirement for a final to seek and identify his own assassin. This edition includes an introduction by Percival Everett, an afterword by the author, and a "lost chapter."
Called "one of the most talented young writers on the American scene today" by Paul Auster, Laird Hunt is the author of four genre-bending novels and was a finalist for the 2010 PEN Center USA Award. Born in Singapore and educated at Indiana University and the Sorbonne in Paris, Hunt has lived in Tokyo, London, The Hague, New York, and on an Indiana farm. A former press officer at the United Nations and current faculty member at the University of Denver, he now lives in Boulder, Colorado.
218 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2012
9 people want to read
About the author
Laird Hunt
41 books528 followersLaird Hunt is an American writer, translator and academic.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
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January 3, 2026
Reads like Kafka as if written by Donald Barthelme: obscure and frustrating, yet breezy and ironic. The review from Publishers Weekly complains that "the absence of plot make[s] this a difficult, frustrating read," but that misses the point—the difficulties of The Impossibly are intentional, and totally worth the effort. This is an intelligent, funny, and beautifully written book.
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