"A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES Meets THE CORRECTIONS

in Friedmann's warm and wacky tale of family dysfunction and redemption" —Library Journal

“The

outrageous developments and swift pace

make this novel hard to resist.”

–Publishers Weekly

JERUSHA'S POISON…

…to just about everyone--particularly her adult children. Fortunately, poison is the very superfood of the satirist. Patty Friedmann, the reigning queen of black comedy, hits one out of the park with her family straight out of Tolstoy--unhappy in its own way, a uniquely twisted Southern way.

Meet the Baileys. Born and bred in a working class New Orleans neighborhood, Zib and Wilson think the thick cloud of cigarette smoke enveloping their mother is what probably killed their father. Certainly the toxicity of Jerusha’s dark, cynical attitudes has driven her children far from the nest. Wilson has escaped to Chicago, married a woman who hates him, converted to Judaism, and become a decorated professor of Organic Evolution. Zib, almost forty, has made it only as far as the Florida Panhandle, where she's an assistant manager at the local Winn-Dixie, doomed to fending off a sleazy boss given to late night phone calls. Only one person, as isolated as she is, shows Jerusha any affection: Dustin Puglia, chubby, wise, and fearless, a ten-year-old living next door with a poisonous mother of his own.

Although Wilson and Zib have forged independent lives away from their mother—as well as each other—their father's death brings them back together for a darkly droll, yet heart-wrenching round of domestic insanity. Does it remind you of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY? Or THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS? Patty Friedmann got there first! And she’s just as funny and observant as the authors of those splendid screenplays.

Who Will Like It

: Fans of off-beat dark comedies like AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, family dramas with a lot more humor than THE CORRECTIONS, the incomparable CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, and another mistress of the twisted, Flannery O’Connor. Not to mention Patty Friedmann's other books:

TOO JEWISH #1
TOO JEWISH: THE NEXT GENERATION (formerly The Exact Image of Mother)
PICK-UP LINE (formerly Side Effects)
ELEANOR RUSHING
A LITTLE BIT RUINED
ODDS

“Secondhand Smoke does not seek life in fancy words and clever euphemisms.

It tingles because it’s raw and true

… The way [Friedmann] carves a sentence gives you the sense that she’s always known how to do it.” –

Critique Magazine

“Readers… will find themselves laughing out loud and moved to tears.

An immense and original talent.

” –

The TIMES-PICAYUNE (New Orleans)

IT’S A GOOD DAY WHEN YOU DON'T RESORT TO RAT POISON…

M.A. Harper’s

acerbic wit

offers a

wickedly entertaining

seat on the always-wild Alzheimer’s ride. Fighting her way back to sleep after her mother’s latest Alzheimer’s-driven 3:00 a.m. ramble, Jeanne Roth reminds herself: Tomorrow will be here soon, and it’s going to be just like today was, like something out of Lewis Carroll on crystal meth. Capturing the hilarity and heartbreak of those who've lost their minds to Alzheimer’s, and the tensile strength of mind required of their caregivers, The Worst Day of My Life, So Far is

a thoughtful, powerful book

about doing the laundry and going to bed content in the knowledge that you have once again made it through the day without, as Jeanne says, having “yet poisoned her, nor put my head in the oven.”By turns sharp and poignant, Harper is at her most

deliciously acidic

rehashing the awkward adolescence familiar to most of us, fearlessly probing the questionable decisions of our twenties, and scathingly exposing the failures of our thirties. She lovingly relates Jeanne’s touching memories of her once-beautiful and dauntless mother as Jeanne attempts to reconcile them with the woman who no longer remembers how to use a telephone or toilet tissue. As always, Harper handles the situation with

wit and grace, copious amounts of chocolate ice cream – and bourbon.

WHO WILL LIKE IT:

Fans of STILL ALICE and the Julie Christie movie AWAY FROM HER, as well as books like THE HELP and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK--because we're talking funny AND touching here. Also fans of well-written literary fiction that's also unpretentious, down-to-earth, sometime a little outrageous, and makes you laugh out loud.

Like Twain -- or more contemporary humorists Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor -- Patrick McManus shares the belief that life's eternal verities exist primarily to be overturned.

In McManus's world, all steaks should be chicken-fried, strong coffee is drunk by the light of a campfire, and fishing trips consist of men acting like boys and boys behaving like the small animals we've always assumed they were.In this, the tenth hilarious collection of his adventures, wry observations, and curmudgeonly calls for bigger and bigger fish stories, McManus takes on everything from an Idaho crime wave to his friend Dolph's atomic-powered huckleberry picker to the uncertain joys of standing waist-deep in icy water, watching the fish go by.

Insurance mathematician Henri has his life under control, when a man from the past appears and a shady trio take over the adventure park's equipment supply company ... Things are messier than ever in the absurdly funny, heart-stoppingly tense second instalment in Antti Tuomainen's bestselling series...‘In these uncertain times, what better hero than an actuary?' Chris Brookmyre‘The antic novels of Antti Tuomainen prove that comedy is not lost in translation ... Tuomainen, like Carl Hiaasen before him, has the knack of combining slapstick with genuine emotion' The Times**Soon to be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell**_________________________________________Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen has finally restored order both to his life and to YouMeFun, the adventure park he now owns, when a man from the past appears – and turns everything upside down again. More problems arise when the park's equipment supplier is taken over by a shady trio, with confusing demands. Why won't Toy of Finland Ltd sell the new Moose Chute to Henri when he needs it as the park's main attraction? Meanwhile, Henri's relationship with artist Laura has reached breaking point, and, in order to survive this new chaotic world, he must push every calculation to its limits, before it's too late...Absurdly funny, heart-stoppingly poignant and full of nail-biting suspense, The Moose Paradox is the second instalment in the critically acclaimed, pitch-perfect Rabbit Factor Trilogy and things are messier than ever..._________________________________________Praise for The Rabbit Factor Trilogy:‘A thriller with black comedy worthy of Nabokov' Telegraph Book of the Year'The funniest writer in Europe, and one of the very finest. There is a beautiful rhythm and poetry to the prose ... original and brilliant story-telling' Helen FitzGerald‘British readers might think they know what to expect from Nordic noir: a tortured detective, a bleak setting, a brutal crime that shakes a small community. Finnish crime novelist Tuomainen turns all of this on its head ... The ear of a giant plastic rabbit becomes a key weapon. It only gets darker and funnier' Guardian'Antti Tuomainen turns the clichéd idea of dour, humourless Scandi noir upside down with The Rabbit Factor. Dark, gripping and hilarious ... Tuomainen is the Carl Hiaasen of the fjords' Martyn Waites'The Rabbit Factor is a triumph, a joyous, feel-good antidote to troubled times' Kevin Wignall‘Finland's greatest export' M.J. Arlidge‘The Rabbit Factor is an astounding read. It has the suspenseful twists of a thriller, the laugh-out-loud moments of a comedy and a tragic dimension that brings a tear to the eye' Crime Fiction Lover'You don't expect to laugh when you're reading about terrible crimes, but that's what you'll do when you pick up one of Tuomainen's decidedly quirky thrillers' New York Times‘Tuomainen is the funniest writer in Europe' The Times‘Right up there with the best' Times Literary Supplement‘Tuomainen continues to carve out his own niche in the chilly tundras of northern' Daily Express