Before Bill Clegg's debut novel, Did You Ever Have a Family, hit shelves-before, perhaps, boxes were even packed to ship out to bookstores-it had already secured a spot on the long list for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. So the narrative might make sense: Clegg, one of the biggest literary agents in New York, spends his days turning manuscripts by authors like Molly Antopol, Lauren Groff, and Matthew Thomas into some of the most notable contemporary fiction on the market, and is already a best-selling memoirist. You wouldn't be alone in believing that Clegg merely strolled onto the Booker list; after all, there might not be anyone in New York better positioned to write a best-selling novel with his eyes closed.
Clegg, however, tells a different story about his novel-which, dropping Tuesday, has already received some of the highest praise of any debut of 2015-and it certainly doesn't include his divine right to publish.
