NEW YORK — Sean Penn is writing a novel about a “divorced, disillusioned man.”

And, yes, he did once release an audiobook under the pseudonym “Pappy Pariah.”

Atria Books said Monday that Sean Penn's novel, "Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff," comes out March 27. Rich Fury/Invision via Associated Press

Atria Books said Monday that Penn’s “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” will come out March 27. The novel builds upon an audiobook from 2016, narrated by one Pappy Pariah and promoted by the usually press-shy actor. During an appearance last fall at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Penn acknowledged a close bond with Pariah, while also referring to him as a sociopath.

“It was soon after I finished narrating the short audio of ‘Bob Honey’ that I began to feel I had only scratched the surface of this story I wanted to tell,” Penn said in a statement issued by Atria. “Expanding that original idea into a fully realized novel has been an exciting challenge.”

According to Atria, Penn’s “darkly humorous novel tells the picaresque story of Bob Honey, a middle-aged, divorced, disillusioned man living in a nondescript house on a nondescript street in Woodview, California. Bob Honey is a man of many trades – sewage specialist, purveyor of pyrotechnics, contract killer for a mysterious government agency that pays in small bills.”

The Oscar-winning actor told the audience gathered at the Los Angeles museum that he met Pariah at a Key West, Florida, bar in 1979. He said that his old acquaintance had gotten back in touch with him and sent a manuscript. “I guess it was a connection to being 19 years old and wishing that I had stayed in touch with this guy,” Penn said of his interest in the book.

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