See the hottest books publishing this Summer

Book Summary and Reviews of The Agonies by Ben Faulkner

The Agonies by Ben Faulkner

The Agonies

by Ben Faulkner

  • Published:
  • Mar 2025, 160 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

In the tradition of Albert Camus, J. D. Salinger, and Osamu Dazai, the archetype of the savage young man at the precipice returns in Ben Faulkner's hypnotic debut, The Agonies.

Armand Bernal is breaking apart. The trials of youth become a torrential odyssey of dislocation and disorientation. In this bildungsroman for our modern age—an age of collapse—Ben Faulkner has created an unforgettable character wary of work, college, relationships, and the world at large, becoming an unstable young man moving toward an act of terrifying violence. Will he survive the gothic America of The Agonies?

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"I enjoyed this book much more than I enjoy most contemporary books, including most alt-lit books. The author tells a story about a boy recovering from grief, and he invests in actually telling that story. It has the angst and melancholy you'd expect, but it's also suffused with hope. This kid, Armand, has so much life, so much vitality—he so desperately wants to want things—and that liveliness infects his narration, which is oftentimes shockingly insightful and humane. It was a pleasure to spend some time with this voice." —Naomi Kanakia, author of The Default World

This information about The Agonies 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.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Ben Faulkner

Ben Faulkner is a former child actor. He lives in the Midwest. The Agonies is his first novel.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Busybody Book Club
    by Freya Sampson
    They can't even agree on what to read, so how are they going to solve a murder?

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Erased
    by Anna Malaika Tubbs

    In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy.

  • Book Jacket

    Songs of Summer
    by Jane L. Rosen

    A young woman crashes a Fire Island wedding to find her birth mother—and gets more than she bargained for.

Who Said...

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B a L

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.