You Were Never Really Here

Jonathan Ames

Mar 2018 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

Now a major motion picture starring Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here is a gritty, harrowing story of corruption and one man's violent quest for vengeance.

Joe has witnessed things that cannot be erased. A former FBI agent and Marine, his abusive childhood has left him damaged beyond repair. He has completely withdrawn from the world and earns his living rescuing girls who have been kidnapped into the sex trade.

When he's hired to save the daughter of a corrupt New York senator held captive at a Manhattan brothel, he stumbles into a dangerous web of conspiracy, and he pays the price. As Joe's small web of associates are picked off one by one, he realizes that he has no choice but to take the fight to the men who want him dead.

Brutal and redemptive in equal measure, You Were Never Really Here is a toxic shot of a thriller, laced with corruption, revenge and the darkest of inner demons.

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed "You Were Never Really Here" for what it was: An intimate character study of a broken man. Although I do wish that the book was longer, and I am craving more details about the inner-workings of Joe's tormented psyche, I suppose these are both positive notes. The pacing of the book was perfect, which made the story feel wholly compact, aside from a meandering section towards the end of the read. The most interesting parts of the read were always these sharp, and painful glimpses into Joe's mind, whether it was his past, his present, or his desired future. The writing was adequately black, sharp, and sometimes comical, much like the mind of Joe himself. In summary, "You Were Never Really Here" is a great light read that I would certainly recommend to anyone who feels that they would enjoy inhabiting the fragmented, and hyper-elevated mind of a man who has seen more truth than the average individual should ever come to bear, for the sake of their own perceived sanity.

Incredible. I cannot wait for the movie

About the author

Jonathan Ames is a contributing writer to the New York Press and a comic monologist in the tradition of Spalding Gray. His first novel I Pass Like Night was published in 1989 and led to feature articles about Ames in USA Today and Vanity Fair. Ames has performed at PS 122, Fez, the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe and the New York Public Library. His work has been anthologized in the Henfield Foundation Anthology and in an anthology edited by Joyce Carol Oates. He has worked as a taxi driver, au pair, fiction writing teacher and model. He grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and currently resides in New York.