About the Author

Dan Josefson has received a Fulbright research grant and a Schaeffer Award from the International Institute of Modern Letters. He has an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He lives in Brooklyn, and works at a book club for children's literature.

Reviews

WINNER OF THE 2015 WHITING AWARD FOR FICTION
New York Times Editors' Choice
Booklist Editors' Choice

Dan Josefson is a writer of astounding promise and That's Not a Feeling is a bold, funny, mordant, and deeply intelligent debut.
--David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest

If That's Not a Feeling were a fifth novel, it would be a triumph. As a first novel, it is an astonishment. Dan Josefson sails along the scary edge of perfection in this book, and does so with style, empathy, compassion, humor, and wisdom.
--Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things "Deft, tempered prose...unornamented, but never flat or blunted, so that the characters, not the sentences, heat the pages."
--New York Times Book Review Quirkily brilliant.
--Los Angeles Review of Books "The prose is matter-of-fact, even placid, and studded with perfectly phrased
gems, a cool surface to a work that is rich in feeling. A wonderful and noteworthy debut."
--Booklist, Starred Review "Funny at times, and more than a little sad, the book's form perfectly mirrors Benjamin's profound sense of dislocation and uncertainty. This is a powerful, haunting look at the alternate universe of an unusual therapeutic community."
--Library Journal, Starred Review "Metaphor is a hell of a weapon in Dan Josefson's debut That's Not a Feeling...a funny, humane, egalitarian, and gently challenging book, one to quote and roar over, and one that gets better and stranger as it goes."
--SF Weekly, Instant Classic This is a book of enormous intelligence, and even more heart.
--Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway "An incredibly daring experiment in characterization, and one that will surely reward many rereadings."
--School Library Journal, Adult Books for Teens "It's difficult to read this novel and not feel challenged, moved, devastated, and excited for Josefson's next book."
--Tottenville Review

"Not only is this novel a humorous narrative adventure, it's also deeply moving, subtle in its approach, and beautiful in its execution.... A vivid portrait of human frailty and perseverance, one that makes us question what breaks us, what heals us, and what makes that journey worth it."
--Tethered by Letters

Josefson's debut is an odd, engaging, and, eventually, fulfilling coming-of-age story that takes a little getting used to. Sixteen-year-old Benjamin and the third-person narrator with whom he shares storytelling duties speak in the invented vocabulary of the Roaring Orchard School for Troubled Teens, where Benjamin has been sent after two suicide attempts. Ably voiced by veteran narrator Charles Carroll, this satire could have easily bogged down in mordant, postmodern foolishness. Instead, Josefson breathes compassionate life into the absurdities of existence at Roaring Orchards. Verdict Recommended for all adult readers. ["Funny at times, and more than a little sad, the book's form perfectly mirrors Benjamin's profound sense of dislocation and uncertainty. This is a powerful, haunting look at the alternate universe of an unusual therapeutic community," read the starred review of the Soho Pr. pb, LJ 7/12.-Ed.]-Wendy Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.