How I Won A Nobel Prize

Julius Taranto’s wickedly satirical and refreshingly irreverent debut novel, a young physicist follows her mentor to an island research institute that gives safe harbour to ‘cancelled’ artists and scientists.

Helen, a graduate student on a quest to save the planet, is one of the best minds of her generation. But when her irreplaceable advisor’s student sex scandal is exposed, she must choose whether to give up on her work or accompany him to RIP, a research institute which grants safe harbour to the disgraced and the deplorable.

As Helen settles into life at the institute alongside her partner Hew, she develops a crush on an older novelist, while he is drawn to an increasingly violent protest movement. As the rift between them deepens, they both face major – and potentially world-altering – choices.

Hilarious, provocative and thought-provoking, How I Won A Nobel Prize approaches the issues of our times in a genuine and fresh way, examining the price we’re willing to pay for progress and what it means, in the end, to be a good person.

‘A stunning new talent, announcing itself fully formed’ – Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

Review

Taranto’s hilarious, provocative debut novel, is at once bracingly contemporary and reassuringly familiar . . . The novel’s peculiar genius lies in how you’re never entirely sure where Taranto’s sympathies lie. ― The Times

A punchy and very funny campus novel which manages to satirise the culture wars without ever making too clear which side of the cancel-culture v anti-woke divide the author stands on ― Nicola Sturgeon

With How I Won A Nobel Prize Julius Taranto achieves the near-impossible: a literary comedy about cancel culture that is neither priggish nor self-satisfiedly transgressive, less about culture wars than the neverending battle of being human. A novel of ideas in the tradition of Norman Rush's Mating, How I Won A Nobel Prize is one of the best new novels I've read in years. -- Tara Isabella Burton, author of Social Creature

A wildly original debut . . . Can a high-powered male lawyer write a propulsive, smart, funny novel about science, cancel culture, and #MeToo with a female protagonist? Absolutely. It’s exactly what Julius Taranto has done in his debut, How I Won A Nobel Prize. ― Publishers Weekly

A high-wire act, balancing savvy political satire with brilliant character development and prose that sings and guffaws with nuance ― Shelf Awareness

Julius Taranto does an incredible job crafting an ambitious and nuanced narrative abut "cancel culture" that'll keep you laughing from start to finish. ― Coveteur

About the Author

Julius Taranto’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. How I Won A Nobel Prize is his first novel. He lives in New York.