Author: Dan Fante
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959294
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante’s Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86’d, Chump Change follows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family—and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet. Chump Change is “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman).
Chump Change
Author: Dan Fante
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959294
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante’s Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86’d, Chump Change follows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family—and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet. Chump Change is “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman).
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061959294
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante’s Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86’d, Chump Change follows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family—and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet. Chump Change is “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman).
Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life
Author: Tracy Schorn
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762459050
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life is a no-nonsense self-help guide for anyone who has ever been cheated on. Here's advice not based on saving your relationship after infidelity -- but saving your sanity. When it comes to cheating, a lot of the attention is focused on cheaters -- their unmet needs or their challenges with monogamy. But Tracy Schorn (aka Chump Lady) lampoons such blameshifting and puts the focus squarely on the-cheated-upon (chumps) and their needs. Combining solid advice that champions self-respect, along with hilarious cartoons satirizing the pomposity of cheaters, Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life offers a fresh voice for chumps who want (and need) a new message about infidelity. This book will offer advice on Stupid sh*t cheaters say and how to respond, Rookie mistakes of the recently chumped and how to disarm your fears, Why chumps take the blame and how to protect yourself, and more. Full of snark, sass, and real wisdom about how to bounce back after the gut blow of betrayal, Schorn is the friend who guides you through this nightmare and gives you hope for a better life ahead.
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762459050
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life is a no-nonsense self-help guide for anyone who has ever been cheated on. Here's advice not based on saving your relationship after infidelity -- but saving your sanity. When it comes to cheating, a lot of the attention is focused on cheaters -- their unmet needs or their challenges with monogamy. But Tracy Schorn (aka Chump Lady) lampoons such blameshifting and puts the focus squarely on the-cheated-upon (chumps) and their needs. Combining solid advice that champions self-respect, along with hilarious cartoons satirizing the pomposity of cheaters, Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life offers a fresh voice for chumps who want (and need) a new message about infidelity. This book will offer advice on Stupid sh*t cheaters say and how to respond, Rookie mistakes of the recently chumped and how to disarm your fears, Why chumps take the blame and how to protect yourself, and more. Full of snark, sass, and real wisdom about how to bounce back after the gut blow of betrayal, Schorn is the friend who guides you through this nightmare and gives you hope for a better life ahead.
Walden
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his pencil-manufacturing business and began building a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. This lyrical yet practical-minded book is at once a record of the 26 months Thoreau spent in withdrawal from society - an account of the daily minutiae of building, planting, hunting, cooking, and, always, observing nature - and a declaration of independence from the oppressive mores of the world he left behind. Elegant, witty, and quietly searching, Walden remains the most persuasive American argument for simplicity of life clarity of conscience.When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits. I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars-even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his pencil-manufacturing business and began building a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. This lyrical yet practical-minded book is at once a record of the 26 months Thoreau spent in withdrawal from society - an account of the daily minutiae of building, planting, hunting, cooking, and, always, observing nature - and a declaration of independence from the oppressive mores of the world he left behind. Elegant, witty, and quietly searching, Walden remains the most persuasive American argument for simplicity of life clarity of conscience.When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits. I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars-even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness.
Chump Change
Author: David Eddie
Publisher: Tarcher
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
Bent on literary stardom, David Henry is a failure. And when he finally has an opportunity to make some bucks, how low will he sink to do it?
Publisher: Tarcher
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
Bent on literary stardom, David Henry is a failure. And when he finally has an opportunity to make some bucks, how low will he sink to do it?
White Fang (Chump Change Edition)
Author: Jack London
Publisher: Chump Change
ISBN: 9781640320512
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92
Book Description
Unabridged version of White Fang, by Jack London, offered here for chump change. The story is the essence of the raw American frontier, with wild animals in the wild world of humans. Taste the bitter cold in the unforgettable adventure of White Fang. London writes of dogs driven by, "instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning," which leaves the reader wanting more chapter after chapter. Read the heart quickening tale in this unabridged, affordably printed volume that drives the reader to the last page. Contents PART I 3 CHAPTER I--THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT 3 CHAPTER II--THE SHE-WOLF 6 CHAPTER III--THE HUNGER CRY 11 PART II 15 CHAPTER I--THE BATTLE OF THE FANGS 15 CHAPTER II--THE LAIR 20 CHAPTER III--THE GREY CUB 23 CHAPTER IV--THE WALL OF THE WORLD 25 CHAPTER V--THE LAW OF MEAT 30 PART III 32 CHAPTER I--THE MAKERS OF FIRE 32 CHAPTER II--THE BONDAGE 37 CHAPTER III--THE OUTCAST 40 CHAPTER IV--THE TRAIL OF THE GODS 42 CHAPTER V--THE COVENANT 45 CHAPTER VI--THE FAMINE 48 PART IV 52 CHAPTER I--THE ENEMY OF HIS KIND 52 CHAPTER II--THE MAD GOD 56 CHAPTER III--THE REIGN OF HATE 59 CHAPTER IV--THE CLINGING DEATH 62 CHAPTER V--THE INDOMITABLE 67 CHAPTER VI--THE LOVE-MASTER 69 PART V 75 CHAPTER I--THE LONG TRAIL 75 CHAPTER II--THE SOUTHLAND 78 CHAPTER III--THE GOD'S DOMAIN 81 CHAPTER IV--THE CALL OF KIND 85 CHAPTER V--THE SLEEPING WOLF 88
Publisher: Chump Change
ISBN: 9781640320512
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92
Book Description
Unabridged version of White Fang, by Jack London, offered here for chump change. The story is the essence of the raw American frontier, with wild animals in the wild world of humans. Taste the bitter cold in the unforgettable adventure of White Fang. London writes of dogs driven by, "instinct, sensation, and emotion, and by simple reasoning," which leaves the reader wanting more chapter after chapter. Read the heart quickening tale in this unabridged, affordably printed volume that drives the reader to the last page. Contents PART I 3 CHAPTER I--THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT 3 CHAPTER II--THE SHE-WOLF 6 CHAPTER III--THE HUNGER CRY 11 PART II 15 CHAPTER I--THE BATTLE OF THE FANGS 15 CHAPTER II--THE LAIR 20 CHAPTER III--THE GREY CUB 23 CHAPTER IV--THE WALL OF THE WORLD 25 CHAPTER V--THE LAW OF MEAT 30 PART III 32 CHAPTER I--THE MAKERS OF FIRE 32 CHAPTER II--THE BONDAGE 37 CHAPTER III--THE OUTCAST 40 CHAPTER IV--THE TRAIL OF THE GODS 42 CHAPTER V--THE COVENANT 45 CHAPTER VI--THE FAMINE 48 PART IV 52 CHAPTER I--THE ENEMY OF HIS KIND 52 CHAPTER II--THE MAD GOD 56 CHAPTER III--THE REIGN OF HATE 59 CHAPTER IV--THE CLINGING DEATH 62 CHAPTER V--THE INDOMITABLE 67 CHAPTER VI--THE LOVE-MASTER 69 PART V 75 CHAPTER I--THE LONG TRAIL 75 CHAPTER II--THE SOUTHLAND 78 CHAPTER III--THE GOD'S DOMAIN 81 CHAPTER IV--THE CALL OF KIND 85 CHAPTER V--THE SLEEPING WOLF 88
Chump
Author: Rusty Reeves
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780989414012
Category : African American families
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
"Solid satire built on a deliciously farcical plot..." --Kirkus Reviews You can't save the world. Tell that to Beauregard Peebles, the Princeton-educated white medical student who makes it is his obligation to understand his black, drug-dealing, adolescent friend, Tyranius Roosevelt. By providing the Roosevelts his benevolent intervention - whether they ask for it or not - Beau hopes to stop them from doing the things they do to mess up their lives. It gets worse, as Beau spirals downward, donning blackface and dialect, and makes himself a nuisance with his racial antics, a modern-day Diogenes. Beau, for all his blundering, for all his arrogance, for all his obsessiveness and offensiveness, is honest - and funny. "Chump is a satirical look at American society, and it leaves no one unscathed. The poor welfare recipients, the liberals, and even the idealistic Chump and his doctor friends are all speared in this book. " --David D "Reeves forces us to accept that we deny our own thoughts and impulses via our politically correct defense mechanisms and herein lies a festering problem in race and class relations in America..." --AM in Park Slope "As an RN from LA County Hospital, the story was very believable. For many readers this may be tough to stomach, but I found their relationships very realistic..." --Ann Welton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780989414012
Category : African American families
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
"Solid satire built on a deliciously farcical plot..." --Kirkus Reviews You can't save the world. Tell that to Beauregard Peebles, the Princeton-educated white medical student who makes it is his obligation to understand his black, drug-dealing, adolescent friend, Tyranius Roosevelt. By providing the Roosevelts his benevolent intervention - whether they ask for it or not - Beau hopes to stop them from doing the things they do to mess up their lives. It gets worse, as Beau spirals downward, donning blackface and dialect, and makes himself a nuisance with his racial antics, a modern-day Diogenes. Beau, for all his blundering, for all his arrogance, for all his obsessiveness and offensiveness, is honest - and funny. "Chump is a satirical look at American society, and it leaves no one unscathed. The poor welfare recipients, the liberals, and even the idealistic Chump and his doctor friends are all speared in this book. " --David D "Reeves forces us to accept that we deny our own thoughts and impulses via our politically correct defense mechanisms and herein lies a festering problem in race and class relations in America..." --AM in Park Slope "As an RN from LA County Hospital, the story was very believable. For many readers this may be tough to stomach, but I found their relationships very realistic..." --Ann Welton
Designs on Film
Author: Cathy Whitlock
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062241605
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
Who can forget the over-the-top, white-on-white, high-gloss interiors through which Fred Astaire danced in Top Hat? The modernist high-rise architecture, inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead? The lavish, opulent drawing rooms of Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence? Through the use of film design—called both art direction and production design in the film industry—movies can transport us to new worlds of luxury, highlight the ornament of the everyday, offer a vision of the future, or evoke the realities of a distant era. In Designs on Film, journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock illuminates the often undercelebrated role of the production designer in the creation of the most memorable moments in film history. Through a lush collection of rare archival photographs, Whitlock narrates the evolving story of art direction over the course of a century—from the massive Roman architecture of Ben-Hur to the infamous Dakota apartment in Rosemary's Baby to the digital CGI wonders of Avatar's Pandora. Drawing on insights from the most prominent Hollywood production designers and the historical knowledge of the venerable Art Directors Guild, Whitlock delves into the detailed process of how sets are imagined, drawn, built, and decorated. Designs on Film is the must-have look book for film lovers, movie buffs, and anyone looking to draw interior design inspiration from the constructions and confections of Hollywood. Whitlock lifts the curtain on movie magic and celebrates the many ways in which art direction and set design allow us to lose ourselves in the diverse worlds showcased on the big screen.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062241605
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
Who can forget the over-the-top, white-on-white, high-gloss interiors through which Fred Astaire danced in Top Hat? The modernist high-rise architecture, inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead? The lavish, opulent drawing rooms of Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence? Through the use of film design—called both art direction and production design in the film industry—movies can transport us to new worlds of luxury, highlight the ornament of the everyday, offer a vision of the future, or evoke the realities of a distant era. In Designs on Film, journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock illuminates the often undercelebrated role of the production designer in the creation of the most memorable moments in film history. Through a lush collection of rare archival photographs, Whitlock narrates the evolving story of art direction over the course of a century—from the massive Roman architecture of Ben-Hur to the infamous Dakota apartment in Rosemary's Baby to the digital CGI wonders of Avatar's Pandora. Drawing on insights from the most prominent Hollywood production designers and the historical knowledge of the venerable Art Directors Guild, Whitlock delves into the detailed process of how sets are imagined, drawn, built, and decorated. Designs on Film is the must-have look book for film lovers, movie buffs, and anyone looking to draw interior design inspiration from the constructions and confections of Hollywood. Whitlock lifts the curtain on movie magic and celebrates the many ways in which art direction and set design allow us to lose ourselves in the diverse worlds showcased on the big screen.
Great Illustrated Classics
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Classics
ISBN: 9781577655336
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Pearson Education Library Collection offers you over 1200 fiction, nonfiction, classic, adapted classic, illustrated classic, short stories, biographies, special anthologies, atlases, visual dictionaries, history trade, animal, sports titles and more
Publisher: Classics
ISBN: 9781577655336
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Pearson Education Library Collection offers you over 1200 fiction, nonfiction, classic, adapted classic, illustrated classic, short stories, biographies, special anthologies, atlases, visual dictionaries, history trade, animal, sports titles and more
Amnesia
Author: Peter Carey
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385352786
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
The two-time Booker Prize winner now gives us an exceedingly timely, exhilarating novel—at once dark, suspenseful, and seriously funny—that journeys to the place where the cyber underworld collides with international power politics. When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons (let’s be honest: as they do in so many parts of her country) the doors of some five thousand jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? And does it have anything to do with the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane between American and Australian forces in 1942? Or with the CIA-influenced coup in Australia in 1975? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers—to save her, his own career, and, perhaps, his country. But how to get Gaby—on the run, scared, confused, and angry—to cooperate? Bringing together the world of hackers and radicals with the “special relationship” between the United States and Australia, and Australia and the CIA, Amnesia is a novel that speaks powerfully about the often hidden past—but most urgently about the more and more hidden present.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385352786
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 339
Book Description
The two-time Booker Prize winner now gives us an exceedingly timely, exhilarating novel—at once dark, suspenseful, and seriously funny—that journeys to the place where the cyber underworld collides with international power politics. When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons (let’s be honest: as they do in so many parts of her country) the doors of some five thousand jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? And does it have anything to do with the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane between American and Australian forces in 1942? Or with the CIA-influenced coup in Australia in 1975? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers—to save her, his own career, and, perhaps, his country. But how to get Gaby—on the run, scared, confused, and angry—to cooperate? Bringing together the world of hackers and radicals with the “special relationship” between the United States and Australia, and Australia and the CIA, Amnesia is a novel that speaks powerfully about the often hidden past—but most urgently about the more and more hidden present.
The Laughing Monsters
Author: Denis Johnson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374709238
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game. Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless. Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago. Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374709238
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Book Description
Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game. Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless. Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago. Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.