Local author is giving her debut novel away for free for five days

From 21st through 25th November, Nico Reznick’s transgressive black comedy, Anhedonia, will be free to download as an e-book through the Amazon Kindle store.

Based in Shipston-on-Stour at the time of writing the book, Nico acknowledges that the local area is heavily reflected in the novel. “A lot of the story came together in my head while I was out riding my moped through the countryside towards Morton or Chippy, or sat on a bus between Banbury and Stratford, and the landscape influenced me a great deal, almost becoming a background character in its own right. Even the cover of the book features the inside of a No. 50 Midlands Stagecoach bus and a churchyard along that bus route.’

Anhedonia (a noun defined as “the inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities” and a symptom sometimes accompanying depression) is the story of Alex Austin, a failed poet approaching thirty who has lost his capacity for enjoyment without resorting to deviant and self-destructive extremes. Full of gallows humour, comedic self-loathing, pop culture references and well-fleshed characters, Anhedonia is a charming and insightful study of the human condition – our species’ fetishisation of death; the foibles, fallibility and frailty of family; the lies we’re told about life – and a coming-of-age novel for the generation who never came of age.

Nico Reznick has also published a collection of poetry (the first literary medium she sunk her teeth into), and regularly appears locally as a spoken word performer. This poetic inclination is evident in her prose writing which retains a lyrical flow, even when depicting the humdrum or profane.

Both of Nico’s books were published under the banner of B*Star Kitty Press, a locally-based, growing alliance of independent writers, creatives and promoters, aiming to support and champion original indie fiction. Speaking of B*Star Kitty Press, Nico commented: ‘Working with an organisation like B*Star means that I get to write the sort of books that I want to write, rather than the sort of books that some PR guy with a pie chart tells me are going to sell. I’m interested in telling a good story; I don’t want my ideas to get focus-grouped to death. This way, I still get to enjoy the support, the contacts and the promotional assistance, without having to compromise on the creative aspects of writing a book.’

More information about Nico, her books and B*Star Kitty Press can be found at www.bstarkittypress.com, and Anhedonia can be downloaded for free between 21st and 25th November from www.tinyurl.com/rez-anhedonia.

Nico Reznick is a writer and spoken word performer of ambiguous immigrant extraction.

Having spent her early life moving around various European countries as a “corporate army brat”, Nico now lives in Shakespeare country with her editor and two feline overlords. She has appeared as a warm-up act for a number of established poets, and is a regular attendee and guest at local spoken word events.

Nico’s darkly comedic début novel, Anhedonia, and her first collection of poetry, Over Glassy Horizons, are both available on Amazon. Nico has served stints as a dead-eyed bureaucrat (until realising there’s only so much negative emotion you can bury in spreadsheets), as a purveyor of bad, smuggled wine (statute of limitations since expired) and as a political canvasser and campaign agent (she can tell you how a household will vote based solely on their front garden). Besides writing, her interests include photographing rust, getting angry about politics and assembling Lego, which – she claims – centres her.