About this item
"Cosmic and comic, full of philosophy, mysticism and celestial whimsy. Both profoundly wild and wildly profound." - Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional UniverseIn the not-too-distant future, competing giant fast food factions rule the world. Leonard works for Neetsa Pizza, the Pythagorean pizza chain, in a lonely but highly surveilled home office, answering calls on his complaints hotline. It's a boring job, but he likes it - there's a set answer for every scenario, and he never has to leave the house. Except then he starts getting calls from Marco, who claims to be a thirteenth-century explorer just returned from Cathay. And what do you say to a caller like that? Plus, Neetsa Pizza doesn't like it when you go off script.
About the Author
I am the author of the forthcoming novel Good on Paper (Melville House 2016) and the novel A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World (Melville House 2014) . I live in New York, city of my heart, in the writerly borough of Brooklyn, but have at various points made my home in most U.S. states between Virginia and Vermont. In addition to writing fiction, I freelance as a writer for nonprofits that work in developing countries. In that capacity, I've worked everywhere from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe (most recently in Laos, Nigeria, and Senegal) . I spent much of my adolescence in Rome, and as a young one, I wandered the world, working on food festivals in Melbourne, Australia, and European jazz festivals in France; living in rural Gujarat while volunteering for a Gandhian nonprofit; and teaching Afghan women refugees in Peshwar, Pakistan. I am a native New Englander; my love for the Boston Red Sox is fanatical. My stories have appeared in magazines such as the Paris Review, One Story, Ninth Letter, Kenyon Review, and New England Review. They have been anthologized, nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, short-listed by both the O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories, and awarded runner-up Bridport and Graywolf/SLS Prizes. I have also been awarded fellowships to more than a dozen artists' colonies, both in the U.S. and abroad. I am, always, at work on another book.
