The War For Gloria

Atticus Lish

Bond Street Books

My primary goal in producing this book is to meet people with similar interests. It is my way of reaching out. Meeting people is so hard. It will be obvious that the book is mainly drawn from life, though there is an element of wish-fulfillment - not everything you see is real. Some material is imagined. Susan Sontag and HBO Asia were both sources of inspiration. I am a romantic. I hope that you will not disdain a work that is the product of a romantic imagination. Today's books are usually formulas for winning at sports or business, but what about friendship - or even something more intimate? The intimacy of the hitchhiker and the J.B. Hunt driver who gives him a lift? No one talks about that, especially in academia. This book ventures to fill that void. It is also a story of a coming-of-age (bildungsroman). And a cautionary tale whose point is clear. Its point is that I would like to have some time with you. - Atticus Lish  "A sketchbook drawn through a poetic gloryhole." -J.A. Tyler "The book is sort of disturbing if you want to know the truth about it." -M Sarki "Horrible things happen to people in Atticus Lish's drawings. Monstrous women lust after Tony Danza; serial killers spout ad copy; one-liners are acted out literally, with disastrous consequences. Yet, I couldn't keep from turning the school-notebook ruled pages of this book to find out what the guy on the next page was up to." - Dmitry Samarov, Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab  "Viewed within the context of a coming-of-age narrative, certain things take on a new significance: the constant state of menace that certain characters undergo throughout; the grotesque authority figures that populate the book; and even the somewhat irreverent take on Judaism" - Tobias Carroll New edition with brand new punk-flyer pink cover and 9 brand new illustrations

Life Is with People Book

Tyrant Books

Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.

Preparation for the Next Life

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

Winner of the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for FictionNew York Times Best of 2014Wall Street Journal's Best of 2014Vanity Fair's Best of 2014Publishers Weekly's Best of 2014BuzzFeed's Best of 2014Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.Praise for Preparation for the Next Life"Perhaps the finest and most unsentimental love story of the new decade." -The New York Times"As bold and urgent a love story as you’ll read this year." -Wall Street Journal"A sledgehammer to the American dream." -Kirkus Reviews"One of the most acclaimed debut novelists of the year." - New York ObserverLish (Life Is with People) turns to fiction with this stunning debut novel that plums the underbelly of New York City, tracing the relationship of Zou Lei, a Chinese immigrant working in a tiny noodle restaurant, and Skinner, an AWOL Iraqi war veteran and wanderer. Enduring stints in prison and homelessness, Zou Lei and Skinner experience life on society's fringes. Lish destroys the American dream with struggles his characters face and New York City is anything but idyllic. Zou Lei and Skinner have their budding relationship tested by insurmountable odds, and their own foibles and peculiarities are rendered with vivid detail. Lish's prose is at once raw and disciplined, and every word feels necessary. -Publishers Weekly"So much of American fiction has become playful, cynical and evasive. "Preparation for the Next Life" is the strong antidote to such inconsequentialities. Powerfully realistic, with a solemn, muscular lyricism, this is a very, very good book." –Joy WilliamsThe “next life” of Atticus Lish’s novel is the one you have to die to know. It’s also the next civilian life of a soldier ravaged by three tours in Iraq, and the dodgy life of an immigrant in the city’s sleepless boroughs. The work is violent, swift, and gloriously descriptive. It is love story and lament, a haunting record of unraveling lives. Lish says starkly and with enormous power: the spirit prevails until it doesn’t. A stunning debut.--Noy Holland, author of Swim for the Little One First An illegal Chinese immigrant meets a broken American warrior, and the great love story of the 21st century begins. The intersection of their paths seems inevitable, irrevocable. Their story: tender, violent, terrible, and beautiful. Atticus Lish's prose, lyrical and taut, sentences as exact and indisputable as chemical formulas, is trance-like, evangelical in its ability to convert and convince its reader. Preparation for the Next Life is that rare novel that grabs you by the shirt and slaps you hard in the face. Look, it says. It isn't pretty. Turn away at your own risk. In case you haven't noticed, the American Dream has become a nightmare. Atticus Lish has your wake up call. He has created a new prototype of the hero, and her journey provides us with a devastating perspective on the "promised land" of the post 9/11 U.S., where being detained is a rite of passage and the banality of violence is simply part of the pre-apocalyptic landscape. -Christopher Kennedy, Ennui Prophet

Oneworld Publications

The War for Gloria

Genre Fiction

Serpent's Tail

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Books by Atticus Lish