Description

‘As funny as it’s intellectual, this page-turner about crashing and burning is spot-on about ambition, infatuation, theatre, film, ethics, teens, and everything else.’ Emma Donoghue, author of Room

‘Witty…Earnest…Laugh-out-loud…Pitch-perfect’ New York Times

When Cass – a thirty something year old queer playwright – receives a prestigious award, it seems as though her career is finally taking off. That is until she finds herself at the centre of a searing public shaming. Fleeing New York, Cass moves to L.A. to start anew. Once there, she is pulled into the orbit of her charismatic neighbour, a filmmaker who’s making an ethically murky documentary inspired by a group of teenage girls and their underground fight club. But just as Cass begins to dream of a comeback, the past starts to catch up with her and she is forced once more to reckon with her ambition and the chaos it creates. We Play Ourselves is a darkly funny novel about the cost of making art, and the art of making enemies.

‘Funny, sharp, modern – this is an excellent debut novel. Its bold, edgy, strange heroine has adventures and misadventures, screws up again and again, but somehow won my love. I couldn’t put this book down.’ Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway-award winning author of Chemistry

Publisher Review

As funny as it's intellectual, this page-turner about crashing and burning is spot-on about ambition, infatuation, theatre, film, ethics, teens, and everything else. * Emma Donghue, author of Room * This is a book where the questions are the answers, a story of possibility that challenged and expanded the way I think about redemption. Warm in its humanity and cool in its persistent subversion of narrative expectations, it's a sharp and modern first novel. I loved it. * Maggie Shipstead, New York Times-bestselling author of Seating Arrangements * Witty...Earnest...Laugh-out-loud...Pitch-perfect * New York Times * In deadpan prose that belies the wackiness of Hollywood and Broadway, Silverman stages a blistering story about the costs of creating art. * Oprah Magazine: 32 LGBTQ Books That Will Change The Literary Landscape in 2021 * The multi-talented Jen Silverman knows what she's doing on the page. Funny, sharp, modern - this is an excellent debut novel. Its bold, edgy, strange heroine has adventures and misadventures, screws up again and again, but somehow won my love. I couldn't put this book down. * Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway-award winning author of Chemistry * A fiercely smart and wildly entertaining exploration of artistic ambition, and what happens when the hunger for fame infects an artist's desire to create something true. A uniquely potent take on female rage and competition that also gorgeously evokes the challenge of developing an authentic self when everything we do can be exploited as content. I loved this book and couldn't put it down. * Julie Buntin, author of Marlena * Silverman employs Cass' wry, deeply felt, often self-deprecating voice to tell this beautifully realized novel about choice, ambition, and revelation, with a nod to feminism in the context of the film and its monstrous director, Caroline. All of Silverman's characters are memorable as they drive the carefully plotted, thought-provoking story. Happily, unlike Cass' failed play, this memorable novel deserves a standing ovation. * Booklist (starred review) * A playwright's public shame and jealousy traps her in self-doubt in this mordant debut novel... Cass's dark humor and acts of self-sabotage keep the reader engaged. Silverman's genuine, stirring novel speaks volumes about the lure and fickleness of fame. * Publisher's Weekly * The quiet meditations on the precariousness and ever changing nature of success, ambition, and artwork are the novel's greatest strength. A resonant and thoughtful novel. * Kirkus Reviews * A novel about what it might really mean to be an art monster. Or at least a monster who makes art. * LitHub * A thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining yet serious novel * A Life In Books * A penetrating exploration of the skewed values of the theatre industry [...] and the perils of the lust for acclaim * Sydney Morning Herald *