New Fiction - Titles You Might Have Missed

I don't know about you, but I've got a little bit of year end best list fatigue. Don't get me wrong, I love those sorts of lists, but at a certain point I just want to get back to normal and just read about books, whether they are the best or just ones that are going to interest me. Seems like a perfect time to revisit our recurring books you might have missed post. These are fiction titles, all relatively recent that have crossed my desk recently on their way into the collections. They aren't ones that have gotten lots of hype, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth checking out.

Sandra Beck by John Lavery

My ranting out best lists seems a bit out of place now that with my first book I want to mention that this was named to the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of the Year. But perhaps that's some how in keeping: with my list fatigue its inclusion didn't lead me to find it, but when it came across my desk a few weeks ago, I was very intrigued. Perhaps it's just my current obsession with both Montreal and short stories (it's set in Montreal and by an author who's previously been praised for his short story collections), but it seems to go beyond that.

I like a book that reviewers seem to have a hard time describing—that can't be neatly tied up in a few brief sentences—and this novel seems to be one of those. Even the publisher's description is vague: "This is a book about many things: the struggling antics of adolescence, the banal delusions of solitude, the city of Montreal. But it is, above all, a deeply moving tribute to a woman who is both present and absent on every page." Certainly this is a book about the titular Sandra Beck, but that's about as much as I can get from the descriptions I've read. Few of the reviews I've encountered lay out a plot, instead they talk about character and language a lot. The National Post said "You’ll read John Lavery for the wildly energetic prose and for his surprising grasp of imagery. You’ll turn the pages to delight in the language...", but I guess you'll have to investigate yourself to find out what it's about.

The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer

The library catalogue offers this synopsis of the 2nd novel from an American author: "Searching for the meaning behind his wife's suicide with her (suspected) lover, art critic Daniel Lichtmann discovers a link to pre-World War II Vienna, forgotten artist Josef Pick, and a remarkable woman."

Managing to combine the seemingly divergent styles of quick pacing and lyrical writing, and using parallel narratives, Winer tells a story of love, loss and history that Kirkus magazine called "A tour de force of provocative ideas—about art, love, Jewish identity, survivor's guilt, the fluidity of time and so much else—expressed through emotionally riveting characters"

Echoes From the Other Land {stories}
by Ava Homa

From a publisher that specializes in "new Canadian and world writing" this book seems to combine both of their focuses. A collection from a Iranian author living in Canada these are "haunting stories [that] beautifully evoke the oppressive lives of modern women in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

New Books You Might Have Missed - International Fiction

I've been writing these new books you might have missed posts for awhile now. The idea for me is that there are so many great books out there that don't necessarily get a lot of press coverage, that I like selecting a few to highlight. In my random selection of the interesting looking fiction coming across my desk in the last month or so, I was noticed a large percentage of them were from international authors, including a lot of books in translation. So, if you're looking for some new and exciting fiction, why not try one of these from beyond your borders.

Khaled Al Khamissi is an Egyptian author whose first book Taxi was published in Arabic in 2007. The English edition has recently been released. It's a collection of fictional monologues from Taxi drivers in the bustling city of Cairo and was a bestseller in Egypt.

Leaving Tangier is a new novel from Moroccan born Tahar Ben Jelloun that follows the tale of a brother and sister who leave Morocco for a new life in Spain. Although Arabic is Ben Jelloun's first language, he writes in French. He was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1987 for the original French edition of the book translated as The Sacred Night and in 2004 he won the Dublin IMPAC award for the book This Blinding Absence of Light.

Another author who writes in French despite is not being his first language is Chinese/French author Dai Sijie. Once on a Moonless Night his third novel, is a story of love and language that revolves around a lost ancient scroll. Booklist called it a "dazzling and magical saga".

The most recent novel from Javier Calvo a young (born in 1973) up-and-coming author born in Barcelona is Wonderful World. Publisher's Weekly described the novel as "a frenetic and magnificent mashup of family drama, mob revenge story and surreal mystery".

And finally, Love, Anger, Madness by the late Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Translated from French and described by the publisher as a "stunning trilogy of novellas ... Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005."

New Books You Might Have Missed - nonfiction for weekend reading

On Friday, we drew attention to a few new fiction titles that have recently arrived in the library. Today we'll look at a few nonfiction titles.

More and more, nonfiction is reading that people do for fun, not just for information gathering. All of these new titles tackle interesting factual topics, but with a flair that you might associate more with fiction.

The Secret Lives of Buildings: from the ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in thirteen stories by Edward Hollis will be of interest to those who are curious about architecture or social history. Library Journal said "Hollis ... uses a dramatic storytelling technique to provide a new and entertaining view of the context in which historic structures have existed" while Booklist magazine said "Hollis writes history eclectically, informatively, and entertainingly."

I have always heard that things come in threes - and sure enough, three books (two new, one recently republished) on three very quirky travel adventures proved the adage right for me this week. If you like a good travel adventure, but have an open mind when exploring your means of transportation, one (or all three!) of these might interest you:












Crossing the Swell: an Atlantic journey
by Rowboat by Tori Holmes and Paul Gleeson
All At Sea: one man. one bathtub. one very bad idea
by Tim FitzHigham.
Running Away to Sea: round the world on a tramp freighter
by George Fetherling

And finally, a book that is actually a couple of years old, just came to my attention here when a new copy arrived in the branch. Alex & Me: how a scientist and a parrot uncovered a hidden world of animal intelligence and formed a deep bond in the process by Irene Pepperberg has already been a New York Times bestseller, in large part because its story of a researcher and her subject is "equally a landmark of scientific achievement and of an unforgettable human-animal bond." Great reading for animal lovers and armchair scientists.

More New Fiction - Titles You Might Have Missed

In yesterday's post, I made a note of a few new novels that have quietly arrived in the library (and on book store shelves) without a lot a fanfare... sort of an antidote to the year end best lists of books that have been getting lots of hype. These are the ones that you might not hear discussed around the water cooler at work, but which you might well enjoy if you do come across them. I was having so much fun with yesterday's post, that I couldn't quite stop myself: so today we've got a post looking at some more under the radar new picks.

My Other Women by Pauline Carey

This one was actually released last May, but coming from a small press, there is a good chance you haven't already encountered it. From the back cover "Andrea Demot is a gifted, determined young actress who creates a life and career for herself in the wave of theatrical innovation that erupted in Toronto in the 1960's. Believing that an artist with ambition must guard her independence, Andrea chooses to avoid marriage, but she can't ignore love..." A story of friendship, ambition, feminism and love from first time novelist with first hand experience in the Canadian theatre world.

The Wrong Blood by Manuel De Lope

Historical Fiction translated from Spanish. The novel begins in the Spanish Civil War in a small Basque community where two women, pregnant and alone, share a secret. Fifty years later, the grandson of one of these women arrives in the town only to stir up some of the mysteries and memories that have been long hidden. Library Journal said of the book "De Lope is a masterly writer, constructing a shadowy architecture to house his expansive prose, intertwining plotlines, and themes of misfortune, solitude, and memory. Highly evocative of time and place, this resonant work will linger in readers' minds. "

The Typist by Michael Knight

From the library catalogue: " Assigned to post-World War II Japan in the first year of the occupation, military typist Van finds his distinctly Western values tested by the Communist culture, his duties as a babysitter for General MacArthur's son and startling news from his young war bride." Previous works from this author include: Dogfight and other stories and The Holiday Season.

New Books You Might Have Missed - Fiction

With so many great books being released every week, it can be hard to keep up with what is new. Often we see the same books talked about over and over again in the press, while other books get passed over for promotion. Here's a few of those lesser hyped yet interesting looking titles that passed by my desk in the last few weeks (all descriptions come from the library catalogue):

Flying by Eric Kraft:

An ambitious comedy set both in the present and in an alternate 1950's universe--Flying. It is the story of a young dreamer named Peter Leroy who builds a flying motorcycle and innocently fools his entire home town into believing that he has piloted it across the country--and how, fifty years later, he sets the record straight. Flying is composed of a trilogy of novels, drawing together Kraft's previously published Taking Off and On the Wing, with the final part, Flying Home, which appears in print for the first time in this paperback original. Flying is a brilliant, buoyant comedy of hoaxes, digressions, do-it-yourself engineering, and the wilds of memory.

Ablutions: notes for a novel by Patrick deWitt:

In a famous but declining Hollywood bar works A Barman. Morbidly amused by the decadent decay of his surroundings, he watches the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, making notes for his novel. In the hope of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with the cast of variously pathological regulars. But as his tenure at the bar continues, he begins to serve himself more often than his customers, and the moments he lives outside the bar become more and more painful: he loses his wife, his way, himself. Trapped by his habits and his loneliness, he realizes he will not survive if he doesn't break free. And so he hatches a terrible, necessary plan of escape and his only chance for redemption. Step into Ablutions and step behind the bar, below rock bottom, and beyond the everyday take on storytelling for a brilliant, new twist on the classic tale of addiction and its

consequences.

Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo:

You're twelve years old. A month has passed since your Korean Air flight landed at lovely Newark Airport. Your fifteen-year-old sister is miserable. Your mother isn't exactly happy, either. You're seeing your father for the first time in five years, and although he's nice enough, he might be, well--how can you put this delicately?--a loser. You can't speak English, but that doesn't stop you from working at East Meets West, your father's gift shop in a strip mall, where everything is new. Welcome to the wonderful world of David Kim

Transgression by James W. Nichol:

This is a tense, gripping novel about forbidden love. Set in Paris and Canada in the winter of 1946. While playing in the woods, children discover a severed finger and soon the corpse of a man who is the victim of a terrible crime. The murder connects the past: it's linked with the fate of the young Frenchwoman Adele who, during the war, fell in love with a German soldier and was branded a collaborator. In Canada, she hopes to forget her dark secret. But then the past rears its head - with a deadly consequence.

Livability: stores by Jon Raymond:

A tired man, struggling to overcome the loss of his wife in a car accident. Two old friends, hoping to rediscover their connection on a trip to the woods. A screenwriter hoping to hear news about the future of his film. In Jon Raymond’s deft, nuanced stories, these and other characters contend with the frustrations, longings, and mood swings we face every day. Artfully conveying the feeling of lived experience, these stories brim with gratifying sensory detail: the sound of a tree root snapping underfoot, the smell of a roast, the stillness of the air after music has stopped. And, with careful observations and a humane spirit, Livability gives us a portrait of America, full of characters finding ways to survive their own choices.

New Mystery and Thriller Titles You May Have Missed

Lately I've been talking a lot about forthcoming releases, with monthly posts looking at hotly anticipated titles. But sometimes it's nice to take a peek at some of the recently released titles that aren't getting a lot of hype, whether because you're looking to find an under-appreciated gem, or simply because you'd like to avoid a holds queue.

I've been impressed of late with the number interesting looking mysteries and thrillers that have come across my desk on their way to the new book shelves. Many of them are a part of established series, so if you like these, you can look forward to a the rest of the series as well. Here's a few you might want to check out.

The Last King of Brighton
by Peter Guttridge.

A violent crime in modern day Brighton, leads investigators to another in the early 1960s. A police procedural with noir vibes and (according to BookList magazine) "literate bad guys". My interest was piqued by this great jacket quote from Lee Child: "I don't need the competition, but honesty demands I confess - this is a great thriller" The Last King of Brighton is volume 2 in a trilogy, following 2010's City of Dreadful Night: some reviews suggest this is one where starting at the beginning makes the most sense.

A Bad Night's Sleep
by Michael Wiley.

Another new edition to a series that you may not have already picked up on, this one featuring Chicago PI Joe Kozmarski. The lead is a disgraced ex-cop and in this latest he joins a burglary team in an effort to uncover police corruption. The Chicago setting is rich in this gritty noir series. Read The Last Striptease first, if you want to start at the beginning.

The Taint of Midas
by Anne Zouroudi.

The next book in a series which we've mentioned here on the Reader previously, Zouroudi's the Seven Deadly Sins Mystery Series. Set in the Greek Islands, several installments of the series are already available in the UK, but the 2nd one is the latest on this side of the ocean. With a lead detective described as a "Greek Poirot" the latest installment investigates greed. From the library catalogue: "For over half a century the beautiful Temple of Apollo has been in the care of the old beekeeper Gabrilis. But when the value of the land soars he is forced to sign away his interests - and hours later he meets a violent, lonely death."

I've talked about the Akashic Books Noir Series on the blog before. It's an idea I really love. Collections of noir short stories, set in cities and countries around the world that give you a bit of local flavour with your thrills. A few more of these have arrived recently, giving you a glimpse into the darker side of some well known US locales including San Diego Noir, Cape Cod Noir and Pittsburgh Noir. The library known owns more than 30 titles in the series!

New Fiction You Might Have Missed

It's time for our semi-frequent book summaries feature where we tell you about some recent books that have arrived at the library that maybe haven't gotten the hype of some other recent releases.

The End Game by Gerrie Ferris Finger: winner of the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel competition, or so the cover tells us. The award might have a cumbersome name, but it does indicate that this crime novel set in Atlanta and following an ex-cops investigation into missing children, is sure to be a page turner, but not one with gratuitous violence and sex. (That's the traditional part).


American Subversive by David Goodwillie: Set in contemporary New York City and exploring ideas of American culture in the face of domestic terrorism. A bomb goes off in a NY building, a blogger investigates in a book that Kirkus has called "[A] smart, edgy, suspenseful first novel". The author's previous book Seemed like a good idea at the time is a memoir, which also prominently features life in NYC.


Color Me Butterfly: a novel inspired by one family's journey from tragedy to triumph by L.Y. Marlow: from the back cover "Inspired by a true story, 'Color Me Butterfly' follows four generations of mothers and daughters--haunted by a common specter of domestic abuse--as they discover the strength, hope, and courage to survive." Includes questions for discussion for bookclubs which will surely find much in this tale to ponder.


Brown Dwarf by K.D. Miller: this slim, unassuming looking title is part mystery, part psychological drama. Set in 1960s Hamilton, it explores the relationship between two women, one a well know mystery author, as they pursue a serial killer thought to be hiding in their area.

Cracking Codes & Cracking Jokes: Joyce in the Morning

A few summers ago I tried to tackle James Joyce's Ulysses as a summer reading project. I made a valiant effort and enjoyed the first 100 or pages before I hit a point where I started to lose understanding and with it interest. I know I'm not alone, of the small group of us who had joined a group committed to reading the book over the summer, I think only one of us finished what we'd started.

Ulysses is a book most of us know about but few of us have read. It's been voted the best novel of the 20th century but it's well know for being incredibly difficult to understand. When you think about ways of describing Ulysses, a number of things probably come to mind : it's a classic, definitely, it's a challenge, many would agree. But funny? That's not an adjective that leaps to mind for me.

Not so for W. Terrence Gordon, author of Everyman’s Joyce—he finds lots to laugh at in Ulysses and he wants to help you find it too. He's speaking at the Spring Garden Road Library on June 15th at 7pm for a program called Cracking Codes & Cracking Jokes: Joyce in the morning. As detailed in his program description Gordon "will focus on reading strategies for making Joyce more accessible. Learn how to get all of Joyce, especially the jokes you might have missed. Here is your chance to put the joy back in Joyce on the eve of Bloomsday."

If you're interested in Joyce and Ulysses it's a program you won't want to miss. And in the meantime, here's a few titles you might want to check out:

How To Read Joyce by Derek Attridge

James Joyce by Edna O'Brien (a biography from the Penguin Lives series)

James Joyce : the years of growth, 1882-1915 by Peter Costello

The New Bloomsday Book: a guide through Ulysses by Harry Blamires

Ulysses and Us: the art of everyday life in Joyce's masterpiece by Declan Kiberd

Yes I said yes I will yes: a celebration of James Joyce, Ulysses, and 100 years of Bloomsday
by Nola Tully (Editor)

New Books You Might Have Missed - Fiction

It's been a while since I put together a post of new titles that have arrived at the library. It's chance to focus on some of the less boldly promoted, but still interesting titles that you can find in the stacks at the library. Here's a few new ones that came across my desk in the last week or two.

Animal by Alexandra Leggat

"In a style reminiscent of Raymond Carver, the stories contained in Animal depict people on the brink of major life change. They stand at crossroads they are often oblivious to; they suck thick air in rooms filled with palpable tension. Leggat's characters often seem captured in a cinematic slo-mo, teetering on the edge of something unknown, heroically resisting the ever-present pull of Fate. It matters little whether the characters take action or refuse to act; life acts for them. The reader is left to wonder: when does"meaning" cease to have meaning? Like travelling a mountain highway at night, what's just around the next bend is never known. The stories in Animal never fail to deliver potent surprises." -- Publisher

The Room and The Chair by Lorraine Adams

"The Room is a Washington, D.C., newsroom, an arena Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter formerly at the Washington Post, knows well. Adams follows her acclaimed first novel, Harbor (2004), with an intense tale of grim post-9/11 politics and infinite war. In prose clipped, eliding, yet darkly poetic, Adams sets in motion a two-pronged story of covert action and power. Mary, a fighter pilot with a devastating family history, cannot understand why her Viper crashes into the Potomac, but a Special Ops director, dubbed the Chair, knows all about it, and he isn't finished toying with her life. Stanley, the paper's night editor, wonders why the story of the crash receives minimal play, so he puts the rookie, Vera, an African American former ballerina, on the case, while alpha analyst Don rests on his legendary Watergate laurels, hubristically indifferent to the profound unhappiness of his columnist wife. An Iranian nuclear scientist, child prostitutes, cruel ironies in Afghanistan, the collapse of serious journalism, the wretched secret crimes of an immoral shadow government--Adams fits it all into this masterfully constructed, diabolical cluster-bomb of a novel. A searing tale of lies within lies, not without flashes of humor and beauty, that roars to a halt in a haunted room with a sweat-oiled chair. Read with care.--Donna Seaman, Booklist

The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj

"Both familiar and strange, this story of a large Canadian city seen through the wide eyes of a naive and inexperienced young immigrant - wise in the culture of comic books - is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Samuel is just 17 when his mother dies and he is called to live with the father he has only heard of. He leaves his village in Trinidad and flies to Toronto, where he finds his father living in a place called Regent Park. Samuel is lonely in this "big mall of a country," but he has his memories of superheroes - his mentors - to guide him, including the memory of an unusual friend who was two superheroes in one, as he sets out to explore what Toronto has to offer."--Publisher.

After the Workshop by John McNally

"In his latest shrewd and compassionate satire, McNally draws on his stint at the famous Iowa Writers' Workshop and his work as an author escort, discerning in the dreams and absurdity of the literary world all the bittersweet vagaries of the human condition. Consequently, the tale of Jack Hercules Sheahan and his impossible labors is rife with Pyrrhic triumph and hubristic defeat. Jack was an Iowa workshop star after he had a story published in the New Yorker, but 12 years later, he's alone; his unfinished novel is gathering dust, and his spirit is crushed by the egomaniac visiting writers he drives around town. A barfly and a doofus, he's ripe for catastrophe, and it swoops in like a slicing winter wind off the prairie with the simultaneous arrival of two authors from hell: an insufferable New York hipster and a memoirist fleeing a James Frey-like scandal. Spiked with hilarious digs at the entire literary egofest, yet rooted in a great love for the necessary magic of stories, McNally's irresistible novel of the search for authenticity and meaning offers high comedic catharsis." --Donna Seaman, Booklist

Evening's Empire by Bill Flanagan

"The Year Is 1967. In England, and around the world, rock music is exploding -- the Beatles have gone psychedelic, the Stones are singing "Ruby Tuesday," and the summer of love is approaching. For Jack Flynn, a newly minted young solicitor at a conservative firm, the rock world is of little interest -- until he is asked to handle the legal affairs of Emerson Cutler, the seductive front man for an up-and-coming group of British boys with a sound that could take them all the way.Thus begins Jack Flynn's career with the Ravons... A firsthand observer and remarkable storyteller, author Bill Flanagan has created an epic of rock-and-roll history that is also the life story of a generation." -- Publisher

New Fiction You Might Have Missed

Back again with our semi-frequent book summaries feature where we tell you about some recent books that have arrived at the library that maybe haven't gotten the hype of some other recent releases. These ones have come across my desk recently and caught my eye for one reason or another.

An Inconvenient Elephant
by Judy Reene Singer.

The follow up to Singer's popular Still Life With Elephant, a humourous story of a woman who follows her cheating husband (who happens to be a vet) to Africa to work with elephants in an effort to save her failing marriage. Either book makes a heartwarming read for animal lovers and those who have ever been unlucky in love.

Stash by David Klein.

This first novel from an American author takes a suburban family who seem to have the ideal life and shows how quickly it can all unravel. The starting point is a woman who is involved in a car accident that leaves a man dead. Although the crash was truly not her fault, a bag of marijuana in her car complicates matters with the police. An intriguing examination of middle class America's strange and often contradictory relationship with drugs.

Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn.

We mentioned in post a few months ago that South Africa is rumoured to be the next big thing in international set mystery novels. Nunn returns with the second installment of the Emmanuel Cooper Mysteries (after A Beautiful Place to Die) featuring an English detective now resident in South Africa. For fans of fast paced mysteries with intricate plots.

Petty Magic: being the memoirs and confessions of Miss Evelyn Harbinger, temptress and troublemaker
by Camille DeAngelis.

Romance, witchcraft, murder, espionage: this book seems to have a bit of everything. Evelyn Harbinger is a 149 year old witch who has recently met a man who reminds her more-than-a-little of Jonah, her paramour and partner behind the lines during World War II. Flipping between the stories of her new romantic interest, her historical intrigues and an accusation of murder against a fellow witch, there is a lot going on here, but there's a lot to love here in a witty, upbeat tale.

New Books You Might Have Missed - Fiction

The deliveries of newly arrived fiction have been looking pretty good lately. It seemed like it was time to devote a post to a few of those titles. These aren't the giant blockbusters with long waiting lists, but great looking fiction that I found on the shelf today.

Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland

It seems to me that mystery fans are always on the lookout for a new series. Hyland brings us volume 2 in his Emily Tempest Investigation series. Volume 1, entitled Moonlight Downs, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Novel, an Australian prize that celebrates new writers in that country. Emily Tempest is a young woman who has recently returned to the outback after years living in cities and abroad. The stories offer a rich setting, and explore the relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Walks With Men by Ann Beattie

A slim summer offering from a multi-award winning American author who is known for her strength in short form writing. Set in NYC in the early 1980s, it follows a young woman who has recently arrived after graduating from Harvard and of her romance with an older man. Booklist said: "This is a stark tale even for Beattie, the master of terseness and angst. But it is also an oddly beautiful distillation of a specific moment both in one fledgling writer’s life and in New York’s celebrity-driven culture, when creative forces gather like a held breath or the sea before a tsunami." Probably not the lightest summer read, but one that certainly sounds intriguing.

The Line by Olga Grushin

The second offering from Russian-American author Grushin, who previously penned The Dream Life of Sukhanov. The jacket description seems to give only a glimpse into the story: "The line begins to form on the whispered rumor that a famous exiled composer is returning to Russia to conduct his last symphony. Tickets will be limited. The concert date is unknown. Nameless faces join the line, jostling for preferred position—a crowd of strangers, each intent on gaining advantage. But as time passes and the seasons change and still the ticket kiosk remains shuttered, these anonymous souls take on individual shape...." Reviews are wildly mixed, Publisher's Weekly called it a "disappointing follow-up" but Library Journal gave it a starred review saying it was "recommended ecstatically". That can't help but make me a little bit curious.

Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva by Victoria Rowell

Rowell spent 17 years in the role of Drucilla Winters on daytime soap The Young and the Restless. This summer novel focuses on actress Calysta Jeffries who plays a role in the TV series "The Rich and the Ruthless." The publishing information for this book describes it as "Ripped from the headlines of Soap Opera Digest and straight off of the television screen, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva will give readers plenty to talk about as they try to guess where the real world ends and Rowell's imagination begins." Sounds like a perfect beach read.

Holy Water by James P. Othmer

When a book is outlandish and satirical, I sometimes find it difficult to try and sum it up, so I'll let the book jacket from this 2nd novel from an author who also gave us Adland: searching for the meaning of life on a branded planet, sum it up: "Henry Tuhoe is the quintessential twenty-first-century man. He has a vague, well-compensated job working for a multinational conglomerate—but everyone around him is getting laid off as the company outsources everything it can to third-world countries. He has a beautiful wife—his college sweetheart—and an idyllic new home in the leafy suburbs, complete with pool. But his wife won’t let him touch her, even though she demanded he get a vasectomy; he’s seriously overleveraged on the mortgage; and no matter what chemicals he tries the pool remains a corpselike shade of ghastly green. Then Henry’s boss offers him a choice: go to the tiny, magical, about-to-be-globalized Kingdom of Galado to oversee the launch of a new customer-service call center for a boutique bottled water company the conglomerate has just acquired, or lose the job with no severance. Henry takes the transfer, more out of fecklessness than a sense of adventure. In Galado, a land both spiritual and corrupt, Henry wrestles with first-world moral conundrums, the life he left behind, the attention of a steroid-abusing, megalomaniacal monarch, and a woman intent on redeeming both his soul and her country. The result is a riveting piece of fiction of and for our times, blackly satirical, moving, and profound."