HOT PINK

Adam Levin’s debut novel The Instructions was one of the most buzzed-about books of 2010, a sprawling universe of “death-defying sentences, manic wit, exciting provocations and simple human warmth” (Rolling Stone).

Now, in the stories of Hot Pink, Levin delivers ten smaller worlds, shaken snow-globes of overweight romantics, legless prodigies, quixotic dollmakers, Chicagoland thugs, dirty old men, protective fathers, balloon-laden dumptrucks, and walls that ooze gels. Told with lust and affection, karate and tenderness, slapstickery, ferocity, and heart, Hot Pink is the work of a major talent in his sharpest form.

Read the McSweeney’s Books Preview of Hot Pink, featuring the short story “RSVP.” And read the interview with porn star with Kayden Kross (part 1) right here!

Watch his interview on Chicago Live! And catch Levin on KBOO’s Between the Covers!

And there’s this melodic Hot Pink playlist on Largehearted Boy: “Rather than picking a song for each story, I’ve decided to make a playlist comprised of the kind of music I’ve liked the longest, the assumption being that that kind of music, by virtue of its having been in my head more often than any other, has probably informed Hot Pink more than any other, even if I can’t explain exactly how.”

Praise for Hot Pink:

“Adam Levin’s new story collection, ‘Hot Pink,’ is about how love—family love, romantic love, love between friends—turns us into people we never thought we’d become. Today you’re one person, tomorrow—enter love, and all bets are off. You could turn out to be anybody… Levin is especially adept at capturing the way we sometimes change against our will.... In addition to love and lust, there’s plenty of havoc in these stories… there’s an exuberance here that is absent from safer and too often soulless collections… Life in ‘Hot Pink’ is raw, messy, yet replete with moments of awkward grace.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A hilarious, tenderly wrought story collection.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

”Hot Pink leaves readers wondering what might be lurking nearby, on the verge of uprooting their own lives.”
—Chicago Magazine

“Each story in this anticipated follow-up to Levin’s megalithic debut The Instructions, has its own cracks-fissures in otherwise recognizable realities that expose the hidden aspects of everyday experience.”
—Nylon

“Wacky, slapstick, and fully charming.”
—Interview Magazine

“From walls that ooze unnameable, unidentifiable gel, through makers of children’s dolls designed to mimic the stages of digestive health, to old widowers in retirement looking back over their marriages, Levin manages to find the pathos and humor in living an ‘ordinary’ existence. Enter his world if you dare!”
—The Jewish Times

“Levin has a gift for voice, for creating enticing narrators. Whether it’s the elderly, dirty-minded Jewish men of ‘The Extra Mile’ or the adolescent Italian-American toughs of ‘Finch’ and the white working-class boys of ‘Hot Pink,’ these are stories that grab the ear first.”
—The LA Times

“Extraordinary and bizarre.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Levin’s writing isn’t just clever but smart…it isn’t just strange but insightful.”
—The Chicago Reader

“Each story is so singular and entirely different that it becomes a joy delving into each strange new world.”
—Grantland.com

“Levin is a genius wordsmith, constructing unorthodox, language-bending paragraphs steeped in a biting facetiousness.”
—Hey, Small Press!

“[Levin] writes tough, funny characters who have honest voices and who see beautiful, awful things happen. He’s also good at writing stories that make you lose track of whether they’re deeply sad or very funny.”
—On the Media Blog

“Beautiful writing that is simultaneously fast, gritty, and brutal.”
—InDigest

“Levin is a writer poised to join the ranks of the best young short-story crafters”
—The Daily Beast

“Hot Pink is gritty. It’s sharp and it’s flashy—and most importantly, it packs one helluva literary punch.”
—Pank

“Impossible to put down.”
–The Chicagoist

“Levin goes places where most of us wouldn’t dare let our mind wander.”
—Jewish Book Council

“In Levin’s hands, fiction explodes again and again into something endlessly enchanting and delightfully unexpected.”
—San Francisco Magazine

“[Adam Levin] can enter the mind of a character and write exactly what they are thinking.”
—Portland Book Review

“Levin’s got game.”
—Chico News & Review

“Entirely unique.”
—NewCity Lit

“Hot Pink really shines, showcasing the work of an author who understands the heartbreaking potential of our desire to be liked.”
—BOMBLOG

“Levin experiments with form, digresses within his digressions, mixes registers beautifully, and never lets realism get in the way of a good time.”
—Star Tribune

“Compulsively readable.”
—Eat Sleep & Read

“[Levin] has captured the originality, brilliance, and perversity of [Chicago]”
—Chicagoist