{"product_id":"playworld-paperback","title":"Playworld - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAdam Ross\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD PRIZE - A big and big-hearted novel--one enthralling, transformative year in the life of a child actor coming of age in a bygone Manhattan, from the critically acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eMr. Peanut\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE \u003ci\u003eNEW YORKER, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, TOWN \u0026amp; COUNTRY, \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003ePEOPLE \u003c\/i\u003e- GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE FINALIST - MULANEY READS BOOK CLUB PICK \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A gorgeous cat's cradle of a book . . . The swirling vapors of Holden Caulfield are present in \u003ci\u003ePlayworld, \u003c\/i\u003e for sure, but also Lolita, Willy Loman, Garp.\" --Alexandra Jacobs, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Extraordinary . . . A beguiling ode to a lost era . . . Line for line the book is a revelation.\" --Leigh Haber, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn't seem strange at the time.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGriffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show \u003ci\u003eThe Nuclear Family\u003c\/i\u003e and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep--along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach--he's teetering on the edge of collapse. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThen comes Naomi Shah, twenty-two years Griffin's senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink--whom he shares with his father, mother, and younger brother--Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi's Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLess a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation, \u003ci\u003ePlayworld\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of epic proportions, bursting with laughter and heartache. Adam Ross immerses us in the life of Griffin and his loving (yet disintegrating) family while seeming to evoke the entirety of Manhattan and the ethos of an era--with Jimmy Carter on his way out and a B-list celebrity named Ronald Reagan on his way in. Surrounded by adults who embody the age's excesses--and who seem to care little about what their children are up to--Griffin is left to himself to find the line between youth and maturity, dependence and love, acting and truly grappling with life.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eADAM ROSS is the author of \u003ci\u003eMr. Peanut, \u003c\/i\u003ewhich was selected as one of the best books of the year by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, The New Yorker, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e. He has been a fellow in fiction at the American Academy in Berlin and a Hodder Fellow for Fiction at Princeton University. He is editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Sewanee Review\u003c\/i\u003e. Born and raised in New York City, he now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his two daughters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 528\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.3 x 7.9 x 5.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 24, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44447518949511,"sku":"9780345807007","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/yE1P4iPi789780345807007.webp?v=1776077403","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/playworld-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}