Sadness

Benjamin Rybeck is the marketing director at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, TX. He received an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona. His work has appeared in Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, The Nervous Breakdown, and elsewhere. The Sadness is his first novel. He lives in Houston, TX.

"The Sadness is a moody, fascinating novel about fame, disappointment, and the burdens of family. Benjamin Rybeck writes with equal authority about film and sibling relationships and romantic obsession, and tells a gripping story along the way." --Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers "The Sadness is a novel with film noir appeal: gritty and absorbing, with just a touch of glamour. Morally ambiguous siblings Kelly and Max, each compelled by their own obsessions and failures, succumb to the pull of home in order to resolve the crippling events of their pasts. With vivid, measured prose, Benjamin Rybeck delivers his characters from the depths of madness toward a quietly optimistic end, in which they discover something far more important than what they thought they were searching for: each other." --Chris Cander, author of Whisper Hollow "The Sadness is a rapturous, absorbing and wholly original novel that announces Rybeck as a surprising and inventive young writer." --Kristen Radtke "With this impressive debut, Benjamin Rybeck perfectly captures what it's like to be young and lost, unprepared for adult life, and utterly broken by the past. Rybeck has so much to say-- about celebrity, cinema, family, and art as both a weapon and a shield-- and he says it all with great intelligence and wit." --Mike Harvkey, author of In the Course of Human Events "Benjamin Rybeck's The Sadness may be a first novel, but the control and assuredness of the writing makes it feel like the work of a much more experienced writer. It's a book full of wisdom about the fumbling, grasping attempts we all make to fill the emptiness inside us, a book that ultimately leaves the reader feeling less alone in the world." --Joshua Furst, author of The Sabotage Cafe