Description

This debut collection from the man Malcolm Gladwell described as a genius took readers by storm. From the slums of Haiti to a golf course in Myanmar, and from the Colombian jungle to the diamond mines of Sierra Leone, Ben Fountain’s impeccable and devastatingly funny stories describe a world in political and social upheaval, and the lives caught in the balance.

Publisher Review

Exceptional . . . Each of these eight stories is as rich as a novel . . . Heartbreaking, absurd, deftly drawn * * New York Times * * Fountain has the storytelling gifts to bring the world home to us and a moral compass set to true north -- Gary Shteyngart Brave, intelligent fiction * * Independent on Sunday * * The work of a very talented writer who is keenly engaged with analysing American identity in the wider world... Beyond the pleasures of Fountain's vivid image-making and fluent storytelling, his collection's great accomplishment is the depth of reality it gives the foreign settings -- Chris Power * * Guardian * * It is such an unexpected joy, in this age of introspection, to discover an American writer with a global outlook -- Jim Crace, author of BEING DEAD Fountain writes with sparkle and dark humour * * Daily Express * * In this first collection the author brings the virtuosity of Greene and le Carre to tales of foreign adventures * * Boston Globe * * Impeccable . . . an heir to Paul Theroux * * Kirkus Reviews * * A collection of stories dealing with moral choices, with the complexity of what being decent can mean . . . It's funny. And human. There's no pretense or cleverness - it's just a beautiful book * * Boston Globe * * Fountain prowls similar turf to that of Tom Bissell, Gary Shteyngart and even early Thomas Pynchon . . . an impressive performance from an author with a gift for reaching into the past and producing something compelling and new * * Los Angeles Times Book Review * * Ben Fountain writes the kind of stories that Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene used to write . . . full of complex adventure and off-balance humour * * San Diego Union-Tribune * * [Fountain] offers pointed prose, nimble revelation . . [and] a rueful generosity towards a string of well-intentioned bumblers * * Philadelphia Inquirer * *