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The November Criminals

About The Book

Addison Schact and his best friend Digger become obsessed with investigating the murder of a classmate as they travel through Washington DC’s underworld in this “thoughtful coming-of-age story and engaging teenage noir” (The New York Times).

High school senior Addison Schacht is taking the prompt for his college entry essay to the University of Chicago to heart: What are your best and worst qualities? He begins to look back on his life so far and considers what getting into college, selling some pot to his classmates, his relationship with his best friend—not girlfriend—Digger, Virgil’s Aeneid, and his growing obsession with the murder of a classmate, Kevin Broadus, all mean. The more he digs into his own past, the farther he stumbles into the middle of the murder investigation.

Filled with classic adolescent reflection and an intriguing mystery, The November Criminals is “one of the funniest, most heartfelt novels in recent memory—a book every bit as worthy of Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger” (The Chicago Tribune).

About The Author

Sam Munson’s writing has appeared in n+1, Tablet, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The National, The Daily Beast, Commentary, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Observer, The Utopian, and numerous other publications. His first novel, The November Criminals, is being adapted into a film.

Product Details

  • Publisher: S&S/Saga Press (October 13, 2015)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781481462877

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Raves and Reviews

"It has the inventive, expansive flare of Michael Chabon’s best writing and the highbrow-crime intrigue of a Donna Tartt book."

– Vanity Fair

“An existential murder mystery for the stoner pre- college set — Keanu Reeves’s “River’s Edge,” as written by Camus. . . ."

– The New York Times

"Munson has written one of the funniest, most heartfelt novels in recent memory—a book every bit as worthy of Mark Twain and J. D. Salinger—about the goodwill and decency that sometimes shrouds itself in adolescent vulgarity and swagger."

– The Chicago Tribune

"Schacht really is Holden’s amoral 21st-century cousin: He shares the profane slanginess and the petulant self-righteousness of Salinger’s famous malcontent."

– The Washington Post

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More books from this author: Sam Munson