People Like Us: A Novel

Longlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Finalist for the Willie Morris Awards for Southern Fiction Finalist for the BookTube Prize for Fiction One of TIME Magazine ’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 One of USA Today ’s 15 Books You Should Read This Summer One of Atlanta Journal-Constitution ’ s Hot New Summer Reads One of People 's Most Anticipated Summer Books One of Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025 A Late Show Book Club pick The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt. In People Like Us , two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds. People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel. Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.