Absurdist Humor

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OUR CULTURE...

What I wanted more than anything was to be standing beside Schmidt, in concert with Schmidt, at the foot of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss along with Schmidt, hands cupped to the sides of our faces, debating art, transcendence, and the glory of the apocalypse.” Former best friends who built their careers writing about a single work of art meet after a decades-long falling-out. One of them, called to the other’s deathbed for unknown reasons by a “relatively short” nine-page email, spends his flight to Berlin reflecting on Dutch Renaissance painter Count Hugo Beckenbauer.

At the turn of the 20th century, as he composes a treatise on melancholy, Jacov Reinhardt sets off from his small Croatian village in search of his hero and unwitting mentor, Emiliano Gomez Carrasquilla, who is rumored to have disappeared into the South American jungle - "not lost, mind you, but retired." Jacov's narcissistic preoccupation with melancholy consumes him, and as he desperately recounts the myth of his journey to his trusted but ailing scribe, hope for an encounter with the lost philosopher who holds the key to Jacov's obsession seems increasingly unlikely.

A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.

A "shamelessly funny" (Kirkus) and utterly original new novel from Mark Leyner about a father and his intense and devout relationship with his daughter and with alcohol. An anthropologist and his daughter travel to Kermunkachunk, the capital of Chalazia, to conduct research for an ethnography on...

For Justyna Kowalski, who lost her sight as a child, the world is a map of sounds and textures. So when a freak accident allows her to see by consuming a human eye, she doesn't just embrace the miracle—she starts a spreadsheet. In a gritty, mutated Warsaw where the grotesque has become mundane, she rates each borrowed glimpse of the world for clarity, duration, and side effects, sourcing her supply from a semi-legal food truck called "Eye Scream."

Evoking such classics as Elmer Gantry and The Day of the Locust, William Giraldi's About Face boldly transfers the perennial literary themes of celebrity, ambition, and obsession to twenty-first-century Boston. There we meet Val Face, a charismatic self-help guru who captivates multitudes with his uncanny ability to heal adherents using only the power of his words, the mysterious touch of his hands, and the transcendent beauty of his face.

In this modern day fairy tale, seven sisters raised in the woods fight to keep their freedom. Deep in the woods of western Finland, a bear hunter has raised his seven daughters to live off the land and steer clear of the trappings of life in town, like cell phones and a social life outside their...

Geek Love meets Sam Lipsyte in this rollicking, hilarious debut novel about a family of unforgettable women obsessed with securing their legacy Claire grew up with the legend of the Unsinkable Mounsey Women. Her great-great-grandmother Fanny made headlines in 1915 for washing ashore in England...

Suzie's seen it all, but now she's looking for something she lost: a sense of the future. So when the chance comes to work with a maverick video artist on his road movie about Donald Trump's America, she's pretty sure it's a bad idea, but she signs up anyway, hoping for an outside shot at starting over. A provocative, genderqueer, shape-shifting musical romp through the brain-eating nightmare of contemporary America, I Heart Oklahoma! is about art, guns, cars, American landscapes, and American history.

Charming but flawed Jack was never "right," but that's a lot of what made him magnetic to others. His decades-long deterioration is chronicled in painful detail with a mix of dark humor, tragedy, and brutal self-awareness that is unlike any book you've ever listened to.

Ich darf gar nicht mehr daran denken! Nachdem ich mich als Mann von der bekannten Inhaberin eines TV-Shoppingsenders als Kindermädchen für ihre verwaisten Nichten einstellen ließ, fing der Wahnsinn an. Äußerlich ein zartes Pflänzchen, entpuppt sie sich als manische, rechthaberische Kaktee. Ihre Logik weigert sich, an der Realität auch nur als Gast teilzunehmen.

Benjamin Malaussène ha uno strano lavoro, è il capro espiatorio dell'Ufficio Reclami del Grande Magazzino di Parigi. Una cliente è appena uscita dalla sua stanza quando si sente un forte boato. Una bomba, poi due, nel dipartimento giocattoli! Il sospettato numero uno dell'ondata di oscuri attentati è proprio Benjamin. E allora per scoprire chi sia il vero responsabile delle esplosioni si mobiliteranno la sua tumultuosa famiglia e una esilarante banda di personaggi: Thérèse la sorella sensitiva, Jérémy il geniale e pestifero fratello, il Piccolo visionario.

Yang Wei wakes to find himself still a patient at the hospital. Somehow, he’s aged decades overnight and is confined to the geriatric ward on a massive Hospital ship as it floats along a bloodred sea full of unsightly things. But human remains and sea nymphs are perhaps nothing compared to the goings-on belowdecks.

The Late Mattia Pascal (Italian: Il fu Mattia Pascal) is a 1904 novel by Luigi Pirandello. It is one of his best-known works and was his first major treatment of the theme of the mask. The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage.

Se si fugge di notte da Villa Bacilla sulle ali di una diavolessa sexy, sorvolando Tristala assieme a tre equipaggi che si spostano contemporaneamente, può accadere di visitare gli otto mondi alterei della mappa nootica. Capita così di conoscere la terra primordiale di Ermete Trismegisto, Protoplas; i mari incantati di Capitan Guepière a Posidon; i cinquanta casinò e i locali notturni di Bludus; Mnemonia con i suoi fuochi fatui e l'insidia dell'embambolia; Medium con le sue giornate di Beneficenza Ben-evidente.

*BONUS: Includes the viral essay sensation "The Crane Wife"* "An innovative work of climate fiction, a nuanced and empathic family story, and, for my money, the summer's best novel thus far." --NPR.org "The most oddly enticing novel you will read this year...Keenly satirical yet unashamedly...

In his blazing debut novel Last Resort, Andrew Lipstein blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices. Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary...

Benjamin was never the sharpest tool in the shed. For as long as he can remember, he’s longed for adventure in far-away lands. But every day he wakes up in the same boring suburb, where nothing ever happens.

In this audacious and honest debut, a college student’s life in New York City serves as a satirical endorsement of modern life everywhere. Collin finds the self-service kiosks at McDonald’s consistent and calming in an otherwise chaotic world. He stands before one, swiping through the interactive menu as a way to ground himself more firmly in his reality—a reality of video games, posting furniture on Craigslist, and chatting with strangers on Discord. He mutters, “No man is an island,” and then realizes he hasn't spoken out loud since he last said, “semipermeable membrane."