The poignant and hilarious tale of a Japanese musician's struggles with genius and illness in a vividly realized New York City. 
From the back cover: 
From the moment the deeply eccentric Hiroshi, a budding Japanese jazz genius, hits American ground, the ground starts hitting back with everything it's got -- just as he is to begin a high-profile gig that promises to make his career. 
Hiroshi's experiences in New York are exhilarating and humiliating, thrilling and traumatic in equal measure. As the quirky, disaster-prone, and language- and music-obsessed artist struggles to recover both emotionally and physically from a paralyzing illness that may render him unable to ever again play his clarinet, he must also cope with the long-distance betrayal of his beautiful girlfriend and with his sublimated guilt over his role in the death of his sister many years ago, at the dusty end of a mysterious route she called "The Forbidden Pathway" in the tiny country town in Japan where they grew up. 
This seriocomic novel, densely populated with quirky characters, is a love letter to New York City and to the English language. It also shines a spotlight on one fairly peculiar corner of the Japanese sensibility embodied in its hyperconscious but absentminded, sensual but abstracted, intelligent but terribly innocent hero, a Japanese Lucky Jim, who comes to terms with becoming an adult and respecting his gifts against the dual backgrounds of a mysterious pathway in Japan, which now exists only in his memory, and what he lovingly describes as "the filthy charm of New York City," in the only too-real present day.

Cherry Whip

Antman, Michael

ENC Press

“In Michael Antman’s Everything Solid Has a Shadow, one man’s soul-searching journey to unearth the mysteries of his past and his present unfolds like a hauntingly beautiful dream from which you won’t want to wake.” —Randy Richardson, President, Chicago Writers Association “Deeply touching” —Philadelphia Inquirer “Emotionally satisfying” —Kirkus Reviews “Four stars out of four” —Online Book Club “A page-turner that also engages the reader in deep metaphysical exploration” —Building the Perfect Chicago Book Collection “A literary joy” —Readers’ Favorite Five-Star Review “Unique, original…unreservedly recommended” —Midwest Book Review “Exceptional magic realism…beautiful” —Windy City Reviews Charlie Alessandro is a musician and a marketing executive who ought to be happily satisfied. He is successful in his career, involved with a sleek and confident woman, and enjoying a fulfilling creative outlet with his guitar. Yet his seemingly complete life is troubled at every turn by something dark that happened to him when he was very young. Everything Solid has a Shadow is an intricately plotted novel driven by two intertwined mysteries—his investigation of that long-ago occurrence and the mysterious apparition of a woman he barely knows who invades his brain as he sleeps. Charlie’s journey into these two mysteries, his relationship with three beautiful young women in his life, and the very surprising resolution, make for an eerie and absorbing tale.

Everything Solid has a Shadow

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Amika Press

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Books by Antman, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Antman, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Cherry Whip

Everything Solid has a Shadow