Synopses & Reviews
"It's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but with fewer pills and more boats." Entertainment Weekly
A moving and darkly comic debut novel about an anxious young woman who administers a self-made "placebo" treatment in a last-ditch attempt to rebuild her life
Amy Hanley has a job as a maid for the summer, but on August 25, she will take the exam to become an EMT (third time's the charm!) and finally move on with her life. In the meantime, she doesn't mind scrubbing toilets immaculately clean or tucking the sheet corners just so. In fact, she tells herself that her work is a noble act of service to the rich guests at the yacht club.
Amy's profound isolation colors everything: her job, her aspirations, even her interactions with the woman at the deli counter. And as the date for the EMT exam comes closer, Amy's anxiety ratchets up in a way that is both familiar and troubling. In desperation, she concocts a "placebo" program — a self-prescribed regimen for her confidence, devised to trick herself into succeeding.
When her landlord, Gary, starts to invite her over for dinner — to practice his cooking skills as he awaits approval of his Ukrainian fiancé's visa — Amy makes her first friend since her mother's passing. Alongside this unexpected connection comes a surge of hopeful obsession that Amy knows she must reckon with before the summer's end.
Tender and laugh-out-loud funny, Nobody, Somebody, Anybody explores the shadowy corners of a young woman's inner world of grief, delusion, and self-loathing, revealing the creeping loneliness of modern life and our endless search for connection. Kelly McClorey captures the hilarity and heartbreak of American ambition.
Review
"A poignant comedy starring an endearing female character." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Kelly McClorey's Nobody, Somebody, Anybody is a beautiful book about very messy people. McClorey's writing is sharp and witty and her novel is thoroughly hilarious. This book forces us to examine the desperately human, utterly embarrassing ways that people can f — up and gives us permission to revel in it. Compulsively readable, Nobody, Somebody, Anybody is spectacular and Kelly McClorey is a dynamo." Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things
Review
“McClorey manages to capture the human desire to shape our lives with narratives — and how devastating it can be when reality departs from them.” New York Times Book Review
Review
“In this debut novel about mothers and daughters and growing up, McClorey unfurls Amy's lonely, paranoid, angry, delusional, and paralyzed life in one cringe-inducing encounter after another....With beautiful subtlety, McClorey conveys warping loneliness.” Booklist
About the Author
Kelly McClorey is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Montana. She lives in Massachusetts.