Erik Hoel’s path to fiction writing may seem a little unconventional. He earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has a career in research. He’s taken his intellectual curiosity to the written word through the art of storytelling, which earned him an Emerging Writer Fellowship from The Center for Fiction in 2017. His debut novel The Revelations is an edgy, thrilling story about neuroscience, death, and the search for the theory of human consciousness. The story follows an abrasive and ambitious neuroscientist thrust into a murder mystery.
Hoel was joined in conversation by Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days).
Featured Book
-
.
The Revelations
By Erik Hoel
Published by The Overlook Press
Monday, Kierk wakes up. Once a rising star in neuroscience, Kierk Suren is now homeless, broken by his all-consuming quest to find a scientific theory of consciousness. But when he’s offered a spot in a prestigious postdoctoral program, he decides to rejoin society and vows not to self-destruct again. Instead of focusing on his work, however, Kierk becomes obsessed with another project—investigating the sudden and suspicious death of a colleague. As his search for truth brings him closer to Carmen Green, another postdoc, their list of suspects grows, along with the sense that something sinister may be happening all around them.
The Revelations, not unlike its main character, is ambitious and abrasive, challenging and disarming. Bursting with ideas, ranging from Greek mythology to the dark realities of animal testing, to some of the biggest unanswered questions facing scientists today, The Revelations is written in muscular, hypnotic prose, and its cyclically dreamlike structure pushes the boundaries of literary fiction. Erik Hoel has crafted a stunning debut of rare power—an intense look at cutting-edge science, consciousness, and human connection.
