'If you've been waiting for someone to close the gap on social distancing, to capture the furtive problems of social media, to make you laugh at your own alienation, to wrap your mind around the narcissism of small differences, then Calder is your new best friend, and his debut collection is the must-read book of the year.' Andrew O'Hagan Julia has landed a fresh start as a chef at an up-and-coming city restaurant. Her ex-boyfriend, Nick, is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Life should have started to take shape by now, but instead they're trying to make new versions of themselves, searching for a good answer to the question: 'What do you do?' 'An exhilarating and beautiful book by an extraordinarily gifted writer.' Sally Rooney 'Remarkably fresh . . . Calder's writing achieves that rare thing of capturing how it feels to be young.' Esquire 'Brilliant, compelling and defiantly authentic . . . As deeply funny as it is engrossing.' Los Angeles Times 'The stories in Reward System are intelligent, cool and sharp. Jem Calder is a real find.' Nicole Flattery