New Tab

Set in Montreal, New Tab spans a year in the life of a twenty-six year old videogame designer as he attempts to reset his life, in the process chronicling with humor disillusion, boredom, self-destruction, Facebook chats, Concordia University, bilingualism, good parties, bad parties, a backyard cinema, social anxiety and running a possibly illegal DIY venue.

Written in a simple yet bold and astonishing style, New Tab is a profoundly intimate tale of self-reinvention and ambiguous relationships. A sharp, funny, modern novel from one of the most unique new writers in Canada.

Reviews

Praise for New Tab:

“This book is straight-up great.” – A.G. Pasquella, Broken Pencil

“Morisette’s Main-centric New Tab is one of the best Canadian novels of 2014.” –Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette

Inventive works of fiction like New Tab, on the other hand, can go where “Scarlett Johansson” and “Johnny Depp” simply cannot go—down to the messy, abject, and irresolvable dilemmas of our digitalizing desire. It’s full of glitches, and it’s pretty cold, unlike some of those steamy and streamlined sex machines of yore. But for now it’s all we’ve got.  –Henry Adam Svec, Motherboard/Vice

A touching portrait of life in Montreal as so many of us know it today. Morissette’s is a unique voice, but at the same time it’s the voice of a generation, the voice of our generation. And so, when Thomas finally meets someone “with bed hair that randomly looked excellent,” we’re just as excited as he is. — Peter McCambridge, Québec Reads

Morissette is the poet Eeyore. A modern technical-intellectual who has captured the millennial undergrad and all his distinctive insecurities. But instead of launching his protagonist into an idealized scenario, full of true callings and real love, he explores the perennial rut of dissatisfaction. –Book Stylist

New Tab astutely captures the ennui, isolation and disengagement of a generation that has been emotionally dismantled by the Internet, then set adrift in a world in which everything is connected and everyone is alone. “How will I check the internet when I am dead?” Thomas asks himself. How indeed.  –Stacey Madden, Quill & Quire

“Set in a Montreal as vividly its own as Richler’s, Morissette’s fresh and original generational take brims with uncommon observations, understood character and abundantly happy-sad situations. A terrific read and a shining souvenir.” – David McGimpsey, author of Certifiable and Li’l Bastard

“Weird, poetic, funny, and original…I tore through it.” – Jonathan Goldstein

“In this hilarious novel, Morissette meditates on finding and making meaning in a time when distractions coalesce to form the new and glossy void. The econstruction of regrets, an email with feelings and the screaming universe cement Morissette as both a master of the absurd and a seer of the real. I lol’d.” – Melissa Broder, author of Meat Heart

“Morissette nails the charms and frustrations of a city subsisting on the proceeds of after-hours DJ gigs and backyard film screenings, stealing wi-fi to get online long enough to pay impossibly high hydro bills belonging to mostly-hallway student apartments…” – Jill Murray, National Post