The Gimmicks: A Novel
Written by Chris McCormick
Narrated by Will M. Watt, Mike Ortego and Mary Jane Wells
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
“The Gimmicks is a gorgeous epic that astounds with its scope and beauty. With empathy and humor, McCormick unravels the ties between brotherhood and betrayal, love and abandonment, and the fictions we create to live with the pain of the past. This novel will blow you away.”—Brit Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Mothers
Set in the waning years of the Cold War, a stunning debut novel about a trio of young Armenians that moves from the Soviet Union, across Europe, to Southern California, and at its center, one of the most tragic cataclysms in twentieth-century history—the Armenian Genocide—whose traumatic reverberations will have unexpected consequences on all three lives.
This exuberant, wholly original novel begins in Kirovakan, Armenia, in 1971. Ruben Petrosian is a serious, solitary young man who cares about two things: mastering the game of backgammon to beat his archrival, Mina, and studying the history of his ancestors. Ruben grieves the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, a crime still denied by the descendants of its perpetrators, and dreams of vengeance.
When his orphaned cousin, Avo, comes to live with his family, Ruben’s life is transformed. Gregarious and physically enormous, with a distinct unibrow that becomes his signature, Avo is instantly beloved. He is everything Ruben is not, yet the two form a bond they swear never to break.
But their paths diverge when Ruben vanishes—drafted into an extremist group that will stop at nothing to make Turkey acknowledge the genocide. Unmoored by Ruben’s disappearance, Avo and Mina grow close in his absence. But fate brings the cousins together once more, when Ruben secretly contacts Avo, convincing him to leave Mina and join the extremists—a choice that will dramatically alter the course of their lives.
Left to unravel the threads of this story is Terry “Angel Hair” Krill, a veteran of both the US Navy and the funhouse world of professional wrestling, whose life intersects with Avo, Ruben, and Mina’s in surprising and devastating ways.
Told through alternating perspectives, The Gimmicks is a masterpiece of storytelling. Chris McCormick brilliantly illuminates the impact of history and injustice on ordinary lives and challenges us to confront the spectacle of violence and the specter of its aftermath.
Chris McCormick
Chris McCormick is also the author of Desert Boys, a collection of stories, which won the Stonewall Book Award. Born in 1987 and raised on the California side of the Mojave Desert, he is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s MFA program who lives and teaches in Minnesota.
Related to The Gimmicks
Related audiobooks
Wonder Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizen Orlov Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Egyptologist Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5East of Hounslow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gun Seller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Keys to Baldpate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hearts of Men: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Throwback Special Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prague Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Truth in Advertising: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homegrown Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dangerous Age Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nickel Plated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Con Artist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watch that Ends the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tragedy of Arthur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: 200 Folk And Fairy Tales by the Grimm Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reality: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Northanger Abbey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play the Red Queen Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hustler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barnaby Rudge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngland, England Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ride or Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snobs: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I, Claudia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lush Life: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Fiction For You
The Lost Apothecary: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rose Code: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outlander Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reformatory: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Neon Gods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Huntress: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weyward: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Lost Names Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Eve Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That Bonesetter Woman: the new feelgood novel from the author of The Smallest Man Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5West with Giraffes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragon Teeth: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alice Network: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5News of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rules of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Quiet on the Western Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Keeper of Happy Endings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Us Descend: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The River We Remember: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Gimmicks
6 ratings0 reviews