The Handsome Man by Brad Casey

Audiobook Sample:

The Handsome Man is a collection of linked stories that follow several years of the life of a young man as he is drawn around the world: from Toronto to Montreal, New York, Ohio, New Mexico, British Columbia, Berlin, Rome, and Northern Ontario, along the way meeting hippies, healers, drinkers, movie stars, old friends, and welcoming strangers. He isn’t travelling, however; he’s running away. But as far and fast as he runs, the world won’t let him disappear, and each new encounter and every lost soul he meets along this journey brings him closer and closer to certain truths he’d locked away: how to trust, how to live in this world, and most of all, how to love again.

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Praise for The Handsome Man:

“I admire the emotional openness, tenderness and deeply uncynical tone of The Handsome Man, a novel-in-stories that feels unlike anything else I’ve read recently. Brad Casey’s fiction debut is a gem that celebrates little blips of happiness and small, elusive moments of genuine human connection.”
—Guillaume Morissette, author of New Tab and The Original Face

“The Handsome Man is about listening and writing, it’s about the dream of youth, the desire to squeeze every last shimmering drop of life out of the present moment. It’s about the vague and haunting ache that comes with loss and the people who make it bearable. From couches in Rome to frozen rivers in the Canadian countryside, the top of the Berliner Dom, and graveyards in Memphis, Casey takes you on an unforgettable journey through life’s wilderness.” —Sofia Banzhaf, author of Pony Castle

“The Handsome Man is a testament to the strength and resilience it takes for people to create new paths of living, being, and belonging in this world. It’s about a life given to adventure, chance, and intuition, and the various and surprising ways the world shows us care when we relinquish control. This book illustrates the struggle to create stability in this kind of life, exposing the magical and transcendent possibilities of living life on the edge without a long-term plan.” —Ashley Obscura, author of Ambient Technology

“if yu want a book uv amayzing n brillyant prose short storeez that ar long in theyr implikaysyuns look no furthr ths wundrful book is what yu ar looking 4 ths is beautiful writing with full orchestraysyun n minimalist accents enjoy” —bill bissett

“Brad Casey’s The Handsome Man is an adroitly self-aware travelogue. There’s an easy sensuality to his language, peppered with precious details, disarming humour and insightful character studies rendered with unvarnished empathy. Gentle, sensitive and full of longing, reading him is like catching up with a long-lost friend for a big, cold beer.” —Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon

Press Coverage:

Most Anticipated: Spring 2020 Fiction Preview —49th Shelf

Launchpad: The Handsome Man, by Brad Casey —49th Shelf

Brad Casey on Honouring Your Space, Writing From the Heart, and Handling Rejection —Open Book

Writer’s Block: Brad Casey —All Lit Up

The 20 Best Small Press Books from 2020 —Mallory Smart, Maudlin House

“This self-deprecating novel exploded my expectations and became the novel from our generation that I’ve been dying to read. Innocence is limited and our grains of hope are sometimes dashed, but Brad Casey has demonstrated that we can all be this Handsome Man. Both running away and towards something possibly better than ourselves.” —Mallory Smart, Maudlin House

In Review: The Handsome Man —Jo Ramsay, Shrapnel Magazine

Brad Casey is a Montreal-based writer and photographer. His debut book of poetry, The Idiot on Fire, was published in 2016. He is a former staff writer for VICE, and has had numerous articles published internationally and in dozens of languages. In 2014 he founded and was Editor in Chief of the limited-run literary journal The 4 Poets. His writing has appeared in Hobart, Peach Mag, The Puritan, BAD NUDES, GlitterMOB, and more. He has organized reading events and performed his work in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Gothenburg. The Handsome Man is his first work of fiction.