In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green - co-creator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers and SciShow - spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realizing she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined.
If you came across AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING at 3 a.m. in New York City . . . Would you keep walking? Or do the one thing that would change your life forever?
The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour - April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre of an intense international media spotlight.
Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric and radicalisation; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. This edition includes beautifully designed endpapers and is definitely not one to miss out on.
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor builds in every way on the thrills of the first book, featuring twists that are even twistier, mysteries that are even more mysterious, and, most impressive of all, solutions to those mysteries that are as interesting as their set-ups. This is a book that thinks deeply and wisely about fame, wealth, the internet, and the future of humanity, but also, and I'm not sure how Hank pulled this off, it's fun as hell
