News from Contact: Mandy Licata, Associate Publicist Vintage Books Tel.: 212-572-2016 A Division of Penguin Random House E-mail: [email protected] AVAILABLE IN TRADE PAPERBACK ON MARCH 6, 2018 A BAARNESRNES & NOOBLEBLE DIISCOVERSCOVER GRREATEAT NEEWW WRRITERSITERS PIICKCK A BOOOKLISTOKLIST BEESTST NEEWW ADDULTULT FIICTIONCTION OOFF 20172017 PIICKCK

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“Marvelously evocative. . . . Exuberant. . . . Eye-opening. . . . [An] urban Indiana Jones–like escapade.”—The New York Times

His family and his city are crumbling when thirteen-year-old Griffi n Watts stumbles headlong into his es- tranged father’s illicit architectural salvage business in 1970s Manhattan. Small and nimble, Griffi n is sent clambering up the ornamented façades of nineteenth-century tenements and skyscrapers to steal their exu- berant architectural sculptures—gargoyles and sea monsters, goddesses and kings. As his father sees it, these evocative creatures, crafted by immigrant artisans, are an endangered species in an age of sweeping urban renewal. Desperate for money to help his artist mother keep their home, and yearning to connect with his father, Griffi n is slow to recognize that his father’s deepening obsession with preserving the architectural treasures of Gilded Age New York endangers them all. As he struggles to hold his family together, Griffi n must build himself into the man he wants to become, and discern which parts of his life may be salvaged—and which parts must be let go. Hilarious and poignant, this critically acclaimed debut is both a vivid love letter to a vanishing city and an intimate portrait of father and son. The Gargoyle Hunters brings a remarkable new voice to the canon of New York fi ction.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact: Mandy Licata • Associate Publicist • 212-572-2016 • [email protected]

THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS: A Novel • John Freeman Gill A Vintage Books Trade Paperback • 352 pages •$16.95 • On Sale: 3/6/2018 • ISBN: 9781101970904 Vintage Books, A Division of Penguin Random House • 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Praise For The Gargoyle Hunters

“Marvelously evocative … exuberant … eye-opening … [an] “… An ambitious, elegiac tale that gazes up at the greats … urban Indiana Jones-like escapade.” wholly original …” —The New York Times —The Village Voice

“THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is wonderful, strong, funny, with “A stellar debut … Gill, who is a noted expert on historical yards and yards of beautiful writing. Its pages are full architecture, brings a DeLillo-like eye for detail to his descrip- of reading pleasures… Extraordinary.” tions of the city while also perfectly capturing the father-son —Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–win- relationship in all its warmth, hero-worship, and, ultimately, ning author of The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain" disappointment. A bildungsroman rich with symbolism, wistful memory, and unabashed longing, this is a remarkably tender “[An] unabashedly charming story … What fantastic love letter to a city and historical fi ction par excellence. For fans adventures these two have while creeping around and up New of Donna Tartt and Colum McCann.” York buildings in the middle of the night, liberating ornaments —Booklist, starred review that might fall by the wrecking ball tomorrow — or someday.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World “Extravagantly satisfying … It held me, delighted me, and left me enthralled. Teems with the particular vitality of its time and “In the spirit of Jonathan Lethem and J. D. Salinger, John place, yet it is never for one minute especially ‘nostalgic.’ It is Freeman Gill strips the mask off New York City in this poignant, stamped with the moods of Manhattan … and the fl avors of the incisive, irreverent novel about fatherhood, art, obsession, mid-1970s, and yet it seems … delightfully and commandingly creation, and destruction. This novel salvages so many things, strange. And it reads, like all the best novels do, as both the not least our abiding relationship with the past. This is a encapsulation of private, urgent experience and a radical, wonderful, compelling debut.” inscrutable transformation of the same.” —Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author of Let —The Los Angeles Review of Books the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic “People often say of New York, whenever you look up at the “John Freeman Gill's THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is a brilliant buildings, you’ll see something remarkable. You could say the evocation of many things: the world of a thirteen-year-old boy, same thing of the quality of the writing in THE GARGOYLE with its mixture of thoughtless destructiveness and HUNTERS.… What is perhaps most striking—and visible on wrenching emotion; a son’s relationship with a charismatic, every page … is just how accomplished and sophisticated architecture-loving, thieving father; the endless changes to Gill’s writing is.” timeless Manhattan during the crumbling, tumultuous 1970s. —Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review Funny, heartbreaking, elegiac, unforgettable—David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green meets E. B. White’s Here Is New York.” “Erudite, irreverent … With a fresh, wry narrative voice, Gill —Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times best-selling author of presents a vividly imagined slice of New York history, a quirky The Happiness Project portrait of the 1970s and a tender father-son story--with plenty of gargoyles on the side.” “THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is that rarest of all animals—a —Shelf Awareness beautifully written literary novel that also just happens to be a rollicking, cinematic, ripsnortingly funny tale with action “Funny and touching… In much the same way that Donna sequences as exciting as those of Hollywood’s best fi lms. Ever Tartt and J. D. Salinger capture the city in their stories, Gill has wonder how a father and son could possibly steal an entire New made New York City one of his most vivid main characters. In York City building, cornice to curb? Here’s your mordant prose, he has taken a wrecking ball as much to the chance to fi nd out.” human heart as he has to the priceless gems of the city’s past.” —Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. —Mary Morris, Anisfi eld-Wolf Book Award–winning author of Smith, and Edge of Tomorrow The Jazz Palace

“John Freeman Gill’s delightful, bittersweet story brings a lost “Fans of Richard Russo will appreciate the complex dynamic metropolis of faded grandeur and raffi sh charm to between needy, young Griffi n and his father, whose breezy brief, wondrous life.” affability masks profound, even abusive, fl aws.… THE —The Barnes & Noble Review GARGOYLE HUNTERS is an absorbing family tale and a wise meditation on aging.” —BookPage

JJohnohn FFreemanreeman GGillill isis a nnativeative NewNew YorkerYorker andand longtimelongtime NNewew YYorkork TTimesimes ccontributorontributor whosewhose workwork hhasas beenbeen anthologizedanthologized inin TThehe NewNew YorkYork TimesTimes BookBook ofof NewNew YorkYork andand MMoreore NewNew YorkYork Stories:Stories: TheThe BBestest ooff tthehe CityCity SectionSection ofof TheThe NewNew YorkYork TimesTimes. HHisis writingwriting hashas appearedappeared inin TThehe Atlantic,Atlantic, TheThe NNewew YorkYork TimesTimes Magazine,Magazine, TheThe NewNew YorkYork Observer,Observer, thethe InternationalInternational HeraldHerald Tribune,Tribune, NewNew YorkYork mmagazine,agazine, Premiere,Premiere, Avenue,Avenue, TheThe NewNew YorkYork TimesTimes BookBook ReviewReview, aandnd eelsewhere.lsewhere. A ssummaumma ccumum llaudeaude graduategraduate ofof YaleYale University,University, wherewhere hehe wonwon twotwo prizesprizes andand waswas electedelected toto PhiPhi BetaBeta Kappa,Kappa, hehe rreceivedeceived aann MMFAFA iinn WWritingriting ffromrom SSaraharah LLawrenceawrence CCollege.ollege. HHee llivesives iinn NNewew YYorkork CCityity wwithith hhisis wwife,ife, tthreehree cchildren,hildren, aandnd a ssmatteringmattering ooff ggargoyles.argoyles. Author photograph © Derek Shapton

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact: Mandy Licata • Associate Publicist • 212-572-2016 • [email protected]

THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS: A Novel • John Freeman Gill A Vintage Books Trade Paperback • 352 pages •$16.95 • On Sale: 3/6/2018 • ISBN: 9781101970904 Vintage Books, A Division of Penguin Random House • 1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019