'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 Julia has landed a fresh start as a chef at an up-and-coming city restaurant. Her ex-boyfriend, Nick, is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Life should have started to take shape by now, but instead they're trying to make new versions of themselves, searching for a good answer to the question: 'What do you do?' 'An exhilarating and beautiful book by an extraordinarily gifted writer.' Sally Rooney 'Remarkably fresh . . . Calder's writing achieves that rare thing of capturing how it feels to be young.' Esquire

For fans of Patricia Lockwood and Ben Lerner, audacious fictions of a generation wondering: what now? ** Chosen as a Guardian, White Review and NPR Book of the Year 2022 ** '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 Julia has landed a fresh start - at a 'pan-European' restaurant. 'Imagine that,' says her mother. 'I'm imagining.' Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Did you know: adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than a romantic partner? Life should have started to take shape by now - but instead we're trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, searching for a convincing answer to that question: 'What do you do?' Reward System is a set of ultra-contemporary and electrifyingly fresh fictions about a generation of the cusp; the story of two people enmeshed in Zooms and lockdowns, loneliness and love.