Author of the week: Adam Mansbach

last updated 8 January 2015

Adam Mansbach was one sleep-deprived dad when he posted a completely unserious book idea on Facebook last June, said Reyhan Harmanci in The New York Times. After a wearying battle with his 2-year-old daughter over her refusal to go to bed, the California novelist jokingly wrote to friends on the social-networking site: “Look out for my forthcoming children’s book, Go the F--k to Sleep.” The comments he got back were so positive that Mansbach decided to write what he now calls a “children’s book for adults.” Though the book isn’t scheduled for release until October, a few verses from the work recently leaked and went viral, causing preorders at Amazon.com to skyrocket. In late April, it peaked at No. 2 on the online book retailer’s best-seller list.

The expletives don’t end with the title, said Tamara Abraham in the London Daily Mail. Every page contains a four-line stanza that ends with the pleading narrator unleashing another F-bomb in his private thoughts. Mansbach expected some criticism about the language, but says people understand the context. “People seem to get the spirit in which it’s intended—that it’s an honest take on parenting, and that sometimes honesty is a little profane, but that doesn’t mean we’re not good parents, or that we don’t love our kids.” As for Vivien, now 3, Mansbach says these days she goes to bed when asked. “I would like to think,” he says, “that writing this book solved her sleep problems.”