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

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.

BIO

Jason Mott has published four novels. His first novel, The Returned, was a New York Times bestseller and was turned into a TV series that ran for two seasons. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals, and his most recent novel, Hell of a Book, was named the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2021.

REVIEWS

“The follow-up to Mott’s National Book Award-winning Hell of a Book weaves the stories of two Black authors — one on an international book tour, the other confronting a deadly school shooting — into a comedic, surreal exploration of love and loss.” -- The New York Times

“[A] playfully experimental novel… Flitting between the story lines of the two writers in pithy and punchy chapters, often with revelatory endings, “People Like Us” offers a timely warning about the perilous state of the nation.” -- The New York Times Book Review

“Part memoir, part travelogue, part fever dream, Mott’s novel deploys wicked humor and pathos to explore issues around race, gun violence, fame and mental health.” -- Atlanta Journal Constitution, “These Hot New Southern Reads Belong on Your Summer List”

“A meta-novel that stings and touches the reader…. The whole book seems the literary equivalent of a post-bop jazz performance, with oblique happenings that compel attention because of the book’s antic energy and lyrical passages.” -- Kirkus (starred review)

“Mott’s writing is funny, intelligent, and sharp as a knife….This book is full of action, suspense, and laughs. Its reflections about being a Black American in Europe are insightful. Jump in for a full-force, visceral ride.” -- Library Journal (starred review) 

[H]  Dutton  /  August 05, 2025

1.1" H x 9.17" L x 6.31" W (1.06 lbs) 288 pages