
The Repeat Room
A Novel
Jesse Ball(Author)
Catapult (Publisher)
Published on 2. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-64622-299-5 (ISBN)
Description
Franz Kafka meets Yorgos Lanthimos in this provocative novel from one of America’s most brilliant and distinctive writers—"a dreamlike exploration of human nature, seen through a speculative lens" (The New York Times Book Review)
In a speculative future, Abel, a menial worker, is called to serve in a secretive and fabled jury system. At the heart of this system is the repeat room, where a single juror, selected from hundreds of candidates, is able to inhabit the defendant’s lived experience, to see as if through their eyes.
The case to which Abel is assigned is revealed in the novel’s shocking second act. We receive a record of a boy's broken and constrained life, a tale that reveals an illicit and passionate psycho-sexual relationship, its end as tragic as the circumstances of its conception.
Artful in its suspense, and sharp in its evocation of a byzantine and cruel bureaucracy, The Repeat Room is an exciting and pointed critique of the nature of knowledge and judgment, and a vivid framing of Ball's absurd and nihilistic philosophy of love.
In a speculative future, Abel, a menial worker, is called to serve in a secretive and fabled jury system. At the heart of this system is the repeat room, where a single juror, selected from hundreds of candidates, is able to inhabit the defendant’s lived experience, to see as if through their eyes.
The case to which Abel is assigned is revealed in the novel’s shocking second act. We receive a record of a boy's broken and constrained life, a tale that reveals an illicit and passionate psycho-sexual relationship, its end as tragic as the circumstances of its conception.
Artful in its suspense, and sharp in its evocation of a byzantine and cruel bureaucracy, The Repeat Room is an exciting and pointed critique of the nature of knowledge and judgment, and a vivid framing of Ball's absurd and nihilistic philosophy of love.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York, NY
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 202 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
234 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64622-299-5 (9781646222995)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Person
JESSE BALL is an absurdist whose prize-winning work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is on the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.