About this item
From "an important writer in every sense" (David Foster Wallace) , a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America's young people to flee its borders, into an unwelcoming world. One such American is Ron Patterson, who finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees. In an unnamed city wedged between ocean and lush mountainous forest, Ron can almost imagine a stable life for himself. Especially when he makes the first friend he has had in years -- a mysterious migrant named Marlise, who bears a striking resemblance to a onetime classmate. Nearly a decade later -- after anti-migrant sentiment has put their whirlwind intimacy and asylum to an end -- Ron is living in "Little America," an enclave of migrants in one of the few countries still willing to accept them.
About the Author
Ken Kalfus is the author of two collections of short stories and three novels, including "A Disorder Peculiar to the Country," a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award. His collection, "Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies," was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award in 2000, and the title story, "Pu-239," was the basis for the HBO movie of the same name. His other books include "Thirst," "The Commissariat of Enlightenment" and "Equilateral." Kalfus's third collection, "Coup de Foudre: A Novella and Stories," is being published in May 2015.
