Temporary

'A narrative so deliciously allusive and disarmingly literal that this reader kept thinking maximum glee had been attained, only for the glee to somehow grow even more maximal just a few sentences later.' Helen Oyeyemi

'A brisk, wildly imaginative first novel… you can hear an old note in American fiction… [the] violent, surreal, often cartoonish scenarios delivered deadpan that draw attention to the freakishness of ordinary life — from writers like Donald Barthelme, Gordon Lish, Ben Marcus… Crisp, swift and sardonic, Temporary reads like a comic and mournful Alice in Wonderland set in the gig economy, an eerily precise portrait of ourselves in a cracked mirror.' New York Times

“The near-farcical chaos of the gig economy is explored in this story of a young woman’s journey through a series of increasingly wild job placements, from shining shoes to swabbing the deck of a pirate ship. (Not to judge a book by its cover, but this one gets extra points for the coolest jacket we’ve seen in a while.)” Vogue

'Masterful… Recommended reading for workers — and essential reading for nonessential workers — everywhere.' Washington Post

'In Temporary, the quest for gainful employment is epic; operatic; deliciously, sunnily, terrifyingly entertaining. Hilary Leichter is a conjurer of rare talent.' Kelly Link

'Leichterworld is built with the author’s astonishing heart and ear, and it’s a world of delightful, ever-escalating absurdity, mesmerizing prose and a poignant serio-comic vision.' Sam Lipsyte

'Temporary is a demented, de-tuned love song for the working life. Hilary Leichter possesses the brute force of language and imagination to create ultra-vivid worlds, suffused with an eerie weirdo beauty. It is Leichter's brilliance that these invented worlds reflect so directly, blindingly, on the secret, mythical workings of our own.' Ben Marcus

'An absurd, laugh-out-loud funny critique of (and antidote to) the dystopia that is late-stage capitalism.' Buzzfeed

'A thrilling, subversive, mordantly funny look at what it means to be alive today — aka what it means to have to work . . . Post-pandemic? It feels even more relevant, a reminder that living to work is really no life at all.' Refinery29