The Nobody Code

“Gault explores coming-of-age, the power of stories, and vigilante justice in this ambitious literary mystery… . [She] dusts the proceedings with light mysticism … grounding the story’s emotional stakes while lending it added psychological depth… . Engrossing.”

–Publisher’s Weekly“From the start, Miciah Bay Gault’s The Nobody Code delivers on the promise of its strange and wild mystery, set in a small Vermont town whose seemingly mundane reality grows more openly unruly and untamed with every page turn. There’s so much moving nostalgia and regret and honest, naked want here, all of it propelling a tale about the deep pleasures of breaking free of the rules constraining us, as well as the unexpected consequences of subjecting ourselves and others to new rules of our own devising. This is a brave, bold novel, one you won’t soon forget.”–Matt Bell, author of Appleseed“Miciah Bay Gault’s sophomore novel is so much greater than the sum of its parts–and its parts are a feast. From drowsy bears and mysteriously missing wolves, from a complicated upending of Me Too questions to an old love that keeps coming back and back and back, this is a novel that takes the strange and makes it joyously stranger.”–Daniel Torday, author of The 12th Commandment“The Nobody Code is a book that questions everything–what if all the fairy tales were true and the rules were meant to be broken? Miciah Bay Gault has such a talent for writing this small Vermont town, I hardly noticed when the real began to feel unreal, the steady ground disappearing beneath my feet. But by then the mystery had its hooks in me, and I was happy to trust the free-fall. One of the strangest and most imaginative books you’ll read this year. You’ll want to start it again as soon as you finish.”–Emily Everett, author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick All That Life Can Afford“Nostalgia is a thing with teeth in Miciah Bay Gault’s delirious masterpiece of teenage hunger, adult disillusionment, and the beastly bite marks left behind. This is a world of talking cats, of vanishing kids and mysterious fires and holy trampolines and secret quarries–that is, the same world as ours, if we know where to look. Living in Dinah’s head is like riding a carousel, but all the animals are shaped like everyone you’ve ever loved. Abundant, blindingly clever, and fierce with hope, The Nobody Code devilishly and deliciously breaks all the rules. I fucking loved this book.”–GennaRose Nethercott, author of Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart“The Nobody Code is that rare feast: a novel that astonishes on every page, twists and turns with wildness, beauty, and delight, and makes you, ultimately, question the stories you’ve been told about your life. A mystery that is also about adolescence, fairy tales, friendship, and love; I read this book with wonder and pleasure and finished it in tears–in awe of this strange, sublime, and haunting masterpiece.”–Robin MacArthur, author of Half Wild“With its secret missions and stunning strangeness, The Nobody Code shines a crackling light on vital questions of love, family, memory, and belonging. This book is audacious and dazzling.”–Jedediah Berry, author of The Naming Song“Miciah Bay Gault’s spellbinding The Nobody Code blends the prickling excitement of an S. E. Hinton novel with a brilliant commentary on being beautifully, tragically young. Dinah is an unforgettable character, an intrepid, rule-breaking girl who becomes a woman shadowed by secrets that return to her childhood hometown and the deep, mysterious woods around it. Follow her with caution. You will emerge changed.”–Maria Hummel, author of Still Lives and Goldenseal