Longlisted for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Ryan Chapmanâs âgritty, bracing debutâ (Esquire) set during a prison riot is âdark, daring, and laugh-out-loud hilariousâŚone of the smartestâand bestânovels of the yearâ (NPR).
A largescale riot rages through Westbrook prison in upstate New York, incited by a poem in the house literary journal. Our unnamed narrator, barricaded inside the computer lab, swears heâs blamelessâeven though, as editor-in-chief, he published the piece in question. As he awaits violent interruption by his many, many enemies, he liveblogs one final Editorâs Letter. Riots I Have Known is his memoir, confession, and act of literary revenge.
His tale spans a childhood in Sri Lanka, navigating the postwar black markets and hotel chains; employment as a Park Avenue doorman, serving the widows of the one percent; life in prison, with the silver lining of his beloved McNairy; and his stewardship of The Holding Pen, a âmasterpiece of post-penal literatureâ favored by Brooklynites everywhere. All will be revealed, and everyone will see heâs really a good guy, doing it for the right reasons.
âFitfully funny and murderously wry,â Riots I Have Known is âa frenzied yet wistful monologue from a lover of literature under siegeâ (Kirkus Reviews).