Reward System: Stories

Calder is a superb writer, by turns funny, graceful, acidly cynical, lyrical--and always verbally dexterous and inventive. He can make the boredom of office life fascinating . . . he can make a desolate house party enlivening . . . and his descriptions of loneliness and dissatisfaction, as in virtually all these stories, leave the reader feeling understood--or, as his characters would say, seen . . . [Calder] write[s] simply and beautifully, with a keen eye for the natural world and human behaviour. --Matt Rowland Hill, The Guardian

"Calder debuts with a sharp collection . . . the choice to stretch out the narrative across several stories . . . leaves room for Calder's insightful observations on the nature of romance and friendship in the age of right swipes and perfectly curated Instagram grids. There's plenty to dig into." --Publishers Weekly

"Jem Calder is my favorite new writer, or my new favorite writer, I can't decide which, and his book Reward System is the best debut by a British fiction writer in years. If you've been waiting for someone to close the gap on social distancing, to capture the furtive problems of social media, to make you laugh at your own alienation, to wrap your mind around the narcissism of small differences, then Calder is your new best friend and his debut collection is the must-read book of the year." --Andrew O'Hagan, author of Mayflies

"Reward System is an exhilarating and beautiful book by an extraordinarily gifted writer. Reading these stories, I found myself thinking newly and differently about contemporary life." --Sally Rooney, author of Beautiful World, Where Are You

The stories in Reward System are intelligent, cool and sharp. Jem Calder is a real find. --Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time