Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary

That most “literary” of narcotics – the enigmatic opium poppy and its various derivatives – and as these stories reveal, those who partake of the sacred flower are forever changed, but the price of paradise is often steep: overdose, hepatitis C, degradation and self-destruction….

Combining the spirit of Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim with a bawdy evisceration of hypocrisy in old-school Catholic education, The Brothers’ Lot is a comic satire that tells the story of the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meager Means……

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government, a pacifist who carries a gun, a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy. Yet there is nothing limp about Switters. He doesn’t merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. As we follow Switters across four continents Robbins explores, challenges and celebrates…

A man regains consciousness to find himself naked in a mass grave, with no idea who he is. His thought is survival, but in a religious war survival depends on knowing which side you are on….

Have you ever wondered why your daddy likes beer so much? Have you wondered, before you fall asleep at night, why he sometimes acts kind of “funny” after he’s been drinking beer? Maybe you’ve even wondered where beer comes from, because you’re pretty sure it isn’t from a cow. Well, Gracie Perkel wondered those same things….

Conman is the story of young Neil Martin, a kindly family man. A bit geeky, a bit nerdy. If you met him, you would assume he runs a failing comic memorabilia store in London’s Soho. Which he does. In order to bail himself out of a huge stock-ruining, poster sopping basement flood, he needs to claim on his insurance. Which he…

Imagine there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after Vietnam. Imagine there is a family in which generations of strong women have shared a connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore. Imagine just those things (don’t even try to imagine the love story) and you’ll have a foretaste of Tom Robbins’s beautifully crafted novel

From beloved and best-selling novelist Tom Robbins comes a collection of non-fiction essays and short fiction, many in print for the first time ever! From tributes such as an ode to redheads, kissing, Diane Keaton, Leonard Cohen, tomato sandwiches and The Doors – to musings, travel essays and art critiques, from short stories to poems…

What if the Second Coming didn’t quite come off as advertised? What if “the Corpse” on display in that funky roadside zoo is really who they say it is – what does that portend for the future of western civilization? And what if a young clairvoyant named Amanda re-establishes the flea circus as popular entertainment and fertility worship…

When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you – an ambitious, although ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker – are convinced you’re facing the Weekend from Hell. Before the market reopens on Monday, you’re going to have to scramble and scheme to cover your butt, but there’s no way you can anticipate the…

An Arab and a Jew open a restaurant together across the street from the United Nations…. It sounds like the beginning of an ethnic joke, but it’s the axis around which this gutsy, fun-loving, and alarmingly provocative novel spins, in which a bean can philosophizes, a dessert spoon mystifies, a young waitress takes on the New York art…

Starring Sissy Hanshaw-flawlessly beautiful, almost. A small-town girl with big-time dreams and a quirk to match-hitchhiking her way into your heart, your hopes, and your sleeping bags… Featuring Bonanza Jellybean and the smooth-riding cowgirls of Rubber Rose Ranch. Chink; a lascivious guru of yams and yang. Julian; a Mohawk by birth;…