"Rosson is a talent to be watched." - Jason Heller, NPR
Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He's compelled to volunteer at the local Children's Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.
Oh, and he's also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc's pyre in 1431. He's just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it's ever been . . . but how will he find her?
When Marvin heads to Los Angeles to locate the woman who may or may not be Joan, he's picked up hitchhiking by Mike Vale, a self-destructive alcoholic painter traveling to his ex-wife's funeral. As they move through a California landscape populated with "smokes" (ghostly apparitions that've inexplicably begun appearing throughout the southwestern US), each seeks absolution in his own way.
In Smoke City , Keith Rosson continues to blur genre and literary fiction in a way that is in turns surprising, heartfelt, brutal, relentlessly inventive, and entirely his own.
**
Review
Winner : IPPY AWARD , Silver Medalist —Fantasy
Winner : IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award ; Silver Winner —Science Fiction & Fantasy
Review
"Riveting, ambitious, and incredibly well-crafted, Smoke City is unlike anything you’ve ever read or ever will read. Part ghost story, part journey, part apocalyptic thriller, Rosson has created a novel that is gloriously original, and echoes the work of many imaginative writers, from Kurt Vonnegut to Jonathan Lethem."
( ―JOE MENO, author of Hairstyles of the Damned )
“ Smoke City kind of wrecked me, really, but in the best possible way. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt, resonant novel about all those things that mean to be human.”
( CRAIG DAVIDSON, author of Cataract City )
Description:
"Rosson is a talent to be watched." - Jason Heller, NPR
Marvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He's compelled to volunteer at the local Children's Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.
Oh, and he's also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc's pyre in 1431. He's just seen a woman on a Los Angeles talk show claiming to be Joan, and absolution seems closer than it's ever been . . . but how will he find her?
When Marvin heads to Los Angeles to locate the woman who may or may not be Joan, he's picked up hitchhiking by Mike Vale, a self-destructive alcoholic painter traveling to his ex-wife's funeral. As they move through a California landscape populated with "smokes" (ghostly apparitions that've inexplicably begun appearing throughout the southwestern US), each seeks absolution in his own way.
In Smoke City , Keith Rosson continues to blur genre and literary fiction in a way that is in turns surprising, heartfelt, brutal, relentlessly inventive, and entirely his own. **
Review
Winner : IPPY AWARD , Silver Medalist —Fantasy
Winner : IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award ; Silver Winner —Science Fiction & Fantasy
Review
"Riveting, ambitious, and incredibly well-crafted, Smoke City is unlike anything you’ve ever read or ever will read. Part ghost story, part journey, part apocalyptic thriller, Rosson has created a novel that is gloriously original, and echoes the work of many imaginative writers, from Kurt Vonnegut to Jonathan Lethem." ( ―JOE MENO, author of Hairstyles of the Damned )
“ Smoke City kind of wrecked me, really, but in the best possible way. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt, resonant novel about all those things that mean to be human.” ( CRAIG DAVIDSON, author of Cataract City )