All The World Is Lost, Or: Finite Jest

Patrick Hipp

Sep 2014 · Wheelhouse Books

About this ebook

"Kill them with cleverness," my mother never said. At least Henry remembers something correctly. What else does he know for sure? Well: that he was destined for failure in Los Angeles, that New York has become a ghost town of the worst kind–a lively ghost town–since he returned, and that he may have only ever been truly happy when he lived in Paris. Once there, everything comes back to him, with the exception of his French, which was never great to begin with, but his memories come through just fine. Or so he thinks. As he tries to pick up where he left off five years before, Henry discovers that the world has moved on, but it has not forgotten. What does he know for sure? Well: that he can't be any more sure about the past than he is about the future.
"Warring prose… a High Fidelity with higher stakes." —Peter Logan, author of Gaijin
"Best copyright page ever." —Ben Garvey, Chart Junkie
"Writers sure do get laid a lot, according to writers." –Evan Petersen, Trouser Snake Oil, Cyanide & Happiness

Ratings and reviews

By far the second-best book I've ever written.

About the author

Patrick Hipp is the author of this novella and We'll Never Have Paris, a collection of related short stories. He was a Riggio Writing fellow at The New School, his short fiction has appeared in print and digital publications on two continents, and his non-fiction, such as it is, has appeared in The Awl, among other websites. Patrick spends an inordinate amount of time reading and discussing Stephen King's writing in chronological order for Constant Readers, a blog he maintains with Andrea Miller. His song "Criminal Mastermind" appears on the soundtrack to the feature film The Prospects, his face potentially makes an appearance in Mark Webber's The Ever After, and his local bar makes a cameo in a Zac Efron movie, of all things. Patrick was born in Philadelphia, raised in South Jersey, and lives in Brooklyn.