Nini Berndt

“Nini Berndt wonderfully makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange. There Are Reasons for This immerses you in the unsettling but tender lives of its characters, whose yearning for connection powerfully mirrors our own. This is a truly memorable novel.”

“There Are Reasons for This is messy-beautiful, gorgeous, compelling. I was struck by the want depicted here; a specific hurt that comes from finding something kindred only to wind up losing it. Nini Berndt makes lovely work of this bruise-writing, the kind of devastation that leaves you with your fist pressed to your lips, aching hard for everyone involved. This is a queer gut punch of a novel. I adored it.”

“There Are Reasons for This is haunting and incantatory, a perfectly calibrated exploration of longing, lust, and life after a tremendous loss. Nini Berndt is one of my all-time favorite writers—her prose is sublime, fearless, and full of heat. This is a blistering, brutally beautiful debut from a formidable talent.”