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Franz Nicolay is a writer and musician, a member of The Hold Steady and other projects. His first book, The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar,was named a ""Season's Best Travel Book"" by theNew York Times;his second, the novelSomeone Should Pay for Your Pain, was called ""a knockout fiction debut"" in Buzzfeedand named one ofRolling Stone's ""Best Music Books of 2021."" He has taught at UC Berkeley, and is a faculty member in music and written arts at Bard College.He lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
Wise, brutal and funny, Someone Should Pay for Your Pain is a bruising and beautiful glimpse of the endless tour of broken dreams some of us call life. But as Franz Nicolay shows in this stunning fiction debut, there is still hope. You just might have to fight yourself for it. --Sam Lipsyte, Author of the story collections Venus Drive Rudy Pauver is a middle-aged musician with mid-level talent, still out there on the road, still grinding, still trying, but he's not quite sure why. In this beautifully and brutally honest novel, Franz Nicolay challenges our romantic notions of freedom and the working artist's life. He crafts a story that any reader, mired in the daily disappointments of what their life was supposed to have been, can embrace. --Cari Luna, Author of The Revolution of Every Day Nicolay's ear goes beyond music. There is confidence and grace in these pages, characters that feel pulled from daily life, none of their rough edges sanded down. A debut novel not just for artists, but anyone who's ever felt like they've grown up and distorted, uncomfortable moving through the world. --Jean Kyoung Frazier, Author of Pizza Girl If you've been waiting for the great rock and roll novel look no further. Franz Nicolay's Someone Should Pay for Your Pain smashes Don Delillo's Great Jones Street against a chaste Lolita. Nicolay's book focuses on the illusion of stardom and the reality that most musicians play mainly in dingy clubs to sparse if passionate fans. Rudy, the book's hero, lays down insights into art making as well as the wide variety of hangovers all the while moving fitfully toward a great dilation of care. --Darcey Steinke, Author of Easter Everywhere, and Suicide Blonde Someone Should Pay for Your Pain is a poignant and powerfully honest meditation on aging, art-making, and failure. With a sharp ear and an unsparing eye, Franz Nicolay has reinvented the road novel, stripping it of wide-eyed, Kerouac-ian grandeur to expose the frozen landscapes--both external and internal--that are part and parcel of a rootless existence. It's a book that will haunt me for a long time to come. --Adam Wilson, Author of of Sensation Machines Franz Nicolay's poetic takedown of a musician's extended adolescence goes down smoother than a drink ticket beer. Read it before you get in the van. --Chris L. Terry, Author of Black Card and Zero Fade
