James Sveck, the narrator of this novel, is an intelligent and precocious teenager who has finished high school and works during the summer at the art gallery his mother owns in Manhattan, where almost no one ever enters. Although he has been admitted to the prestigious Brown University, he is not sure he wants to go; what he really would like is to buy a house in the countryside and spend his days reading, undisturbed; he hates socializing with people his age, whom he avoids and with whom he feels he has nothing in common.

James’s narration offers us a sarcastic and amusing look at his confusing life, at how his dysfunctional family and his psychiatrist try in vain to help him, and at how he clumsily tries to make sense of things and break out of his isolation. Considered by American critics as one of the best novels published in recent years about New York, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is a sharp and moving novel about a young man capable of questioning himself, his family, and the time he has to live in.

“Insightful in giving weight to its narrator and the subtle way it shapes the scenes he stars in. The reader ends up identifying with James and thus learns something useful about the pain of youth.” José Luis de Juan (Babelia)

“We should celebrate the lucidity of this little novel so unusual in literature written for young audiences (highly recommended for adult readers) (…) It is so both because of the simplicity of its language, the fluidity of the plot, and its excellent characters and dialogues.” Carina Farreras (La Vanguardia)

“Cameron has created a very believable and very contemporary Holden Caulfield. (…) A beautiful and lively novel about what the vital confusion of our time means.” Xesús Fraga (La Voz de Galicia)

“A wonderful read that moves and unsettles, because it pulses with those uncertain emotions that accompany the rite of passage to adulthood.” Iñigo Urrutia (El Diario Vasco)

“A small great novel, funny, moving, which—I confess from now on—I devoured in a single day.” Antonio Fontana (ABC)

“Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is written with our blood, it belongs to all of us. Peter Cameron has built the foundations to support that fear, that loneliness that still makes us shudder. A necessary, indisputable book, a must-read. The best reflection on the 9/11 attacks and possibly the 3/11 attacks written to date. Perhaps it is time to celebrate, as the delightful Nanette would say, that we are still alive.” Pedro González (Librería Hipérbole, Ibiza)

“Cameron paints an admirable fresco of a world, ours, incapable of being interested in itself, chasing only futile and trivial things. And he does it with dense, almost poetic prose, perfect dialogues, and an unforgettable character. A beautiful book from the title to the last page.” Valeria Parrella

“James Sveck is a character of brilliant wit whose echo we will continue to hear once the story ends.” The Chicago Tribune

“The book fits into and at the same time breaks a great number of literary molds: coming-of-age novel, New York novel, and 9/11 novel. From the first sentence, you will be hooked by its precocious and amusingly sad narrator.” The Boston Globe

“It is his best work—it is sensational, heartbreaking, and funny. This novel shows all the virtues.” The New York Times Book Review

“One of the best New York books of all time, a mischievously funny gem.” LA Weekly

“Delightfully vital from the first page (…) Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is a piece of oral virtuosity and possibly Cameron’s best book (…) It is not just a coming-of-age novel; it is surprisingly the most subtle novel written about September 11. It is so subtly skillful that one does not realize its true theme until three-quarters through the novel, and then its mention (…) rises from anxiety and gives the book a radiant light.” Lorrie Moore (The New York Review of Books)

“‘Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You’ is great. I say it, and so do Lorrie Moore and Jonathan Ames. (…) The wit with which Sveck describes his experiences and the small world around him will draw a permanent smile, make you laugh, and even burst into uncontrollable laughter. A really funny melancholic comedy, a strong candidate for book of the year.” Philipp Engel (Go Mag)