Michael Kimball


Big Ray

Big Ray's temper and obesity define him. When Big Ray dies, his son feels relief and sets his feelings aside, but not forever. Years later, the adult son’s reckoning takes place with the outsized presence of his father's memory in this stunning novel. Told in over 500 brief entries, the novel moves between past and present, between the father's death and his life, between an abusive childhood and an adult understanding. Shot through with humor and insight that will resonate with anyone who has experienced a complicated parental relationship, Big Ray is a staggering family story—at once brutal and tender, beautiful and sickening.

Available September 2012 from Bloomsbury USA &
December 2012 from
Bloomsbury Circus (UK)


Big Ray US Big Ray UK


Advance Praise for Big Ray:


“Michael Kimball has been writing innovative, compelling and beautifully felt books for years, but Big Ray seems a break-through and culmination all at once. It's funny and terrifying and it's his masterpiece, at least so far.”

-- Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

“An uncompromising work of power and grace. I finished reading it a week ago, but I still can't put it down."

-- Jon McGregor, author of
This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You

“Big Ray, the man, made an indelible human impression on me. Big Ray, Michael Kimball's terrific new novel, is genuinely moving because it is so rigorously unsentimental. Kimball is a powerful and courageous writer.”

-- Dana Spiotta, author of
NBCC Finalist
Stone Arabia and NBA Finalist Eat the Document

Big Ray is disturbing in the most extraordinary ways, and in the end extraordinarily touching also. There’s nothing quite like it I’ve ever read till now (though there were times I thought the ghost of Barry Hannah was whispering in my ear.) It’s amazing.”

Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising

“Elegy, meditation, story, final reckoning—whatever you want to call it, Big Ray is mesmerizing. Sorrowful and honest, the kind of book that compels, not compromises...”

Deb Olin Unferth , author of Revolution

Big Ray is stunning, haunting, and beautiful. This groundbreaking and unforgettable novel should not be missed.”

-- Jessica Anya Blau, author of Drinking Closer to Home