Unreliable Narrator

A hilarious and insightful collection of essays exploring impostor syndrome, from the inside and out, by the most successful "fraud" in comedy.

Aparna Nancherla is a superstar comedian on the rise—a darling of Netflix and Comedy Central's comedy special lineups, a headliner at comedy shows and music festivals, a frequenter of late night television and the subject of numerous profiles. She's also a successful actor who has written a barrage of thoughtful essays published by the likes of the New York Times. If you ask her, though, she's a total fraud. She'd hate to admit it, but no one does impostor syndrome quite like Aparna Nancherla.

Unreliable Narrator is a collection of essays that uses Aparna's signature humor to illuminate an interior life, one constantly bossed around by her depression (whom she calls Brenda), laced with anxiety like a horror movie full of jump-scares, and plagued by an unrepenting love-hate relationship with her career as a painfully shy standup comedian. But luckily, crippling self-doubt comes with the gift of keen self-examination.

These essays deliver hilarious and incredibly insightful meditations on body image, productivity culture, the ultra-meme-ability of mental health language, and who, exactly, gets to make art "about nothing." Despite her own arguments to the contrary, Unreliable Narrator is undeniable proof that Aparna is a force—as a comedian and author alike—to be reckoned with.

304 pages. Hardcover. 

About the Author

Aparna Nancherla is an LA-based comedian whose stand-up has been seen on late-night television, HBO, Netflix, Comedy Central, and the occasional meme. Among many memorable roles, she's starred as Grace (overworked HR rep) on Corporate, was the voice of Hollyhock (teenage horse) on BoJack Horseman, and is the voice of Moon (ten-year-old Caucasian boy) on The Great North. Talk about range! Aparna also wrote for and appeared on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on FX, and has contributed multiple op-eds to The New York Times. So yeah, she has some strong feelings on things. For example, waterfalls. She can't get enough of them. I mean, have you seen one? Just gorgeous.