Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride A Novel

In the highly personal tradition of Jenny Offill and Elena Ferrante, Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride is loosely based on Sweany's tragicomic teenage life growing up in Indiana and his later years working in the New York publishing industry. Hunter S. Thompson biographer William McKeen called it, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Leave It to Beaver.” And bestselling author Frank Bill adds, “In the vein of David Sedaris or Chuck Palahniuk, Brian Sweany has written a tight satirical story that has you bent over with laughter one moment, then wiping away the tears the next minute.”

Brian Sweany has spent the last sixteen years as acquisitions director for audiobook publisher Recorded Books, working with such varied authors as Diana Gabaldon, Dean Koontz, and Alice Walker. Hailed as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Leave It to Beaver" by Hunter S. Thompson biographer William H. McKeen, Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride is based largely on the author's own personal tragedies growing up in Indiana. He lives in Indianapolis.