Pastoralia. Part 13

CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE.

Praise for Pastoralia.

'For sheer imaginative wildness, George Saunders' outrageously funny, yet immensely compa.s.sionate Pastoralia, is in a cla.s.s of its own'

Liz Jensen, Books of the Year, INDEPENDENT.

'Imagined in vivid detail, paced with compelling deliberateness, voiced with faultless skill and charged with figurative potential, this is a formidably a.s.sured exercise in black comedy ... Saunders' writing is a vein of satire, recalling Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Hiaasen, yet distinctively his own'

LITERARY REVIEW.

'A cause of delight ... with a sense of humour half-way between Beckett and Monty Python, Saunders is an anarchic satirist who draws us into a near-future both surreally strange and utterly recognisable ... sharp and blackly comic as ever'

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH.

'Saunders, already nominated by the New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty, prods un-forgivingly and with not a little entertained gleam in his eye. Misfits are his forte, the ugly or the inarticulate or the trailer trash whom n.o.body else will give the time of day ... yet surprisingly the outlook is not bleak; Saunders might be dark, but his writing still permits his characters a humanity and a relentlessness in pursuit of their lowly goals which allows a glimmer of hope that all might not be a complete screw-up'

THE TIMES.

'George Saunders is one of the very best authors of fiction now writing'

TLS.

'My find of the year is George Saunders' brilliant Pastoralia'

Rowan Pelling, Books of the Year, DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Remarkable ... packed with exquisite, oblique tales of American loners and outcasts, all writen in Saunders' surreal, damaged prose ... deranged and moving in equal doses, it will haunt you long after you've put the book down'

UNCUT.

'Outstanding ... Saunders possesses the kind of razor-edged satire that has rarely been seen since Joseph h.e.l.ler and Kurt Vonnegut ... Pastoralia is bitter stuff but it's that very misanthropy that makes it a relentlessly funny book'

LONDON METRO.

'Saunders' off-kilter world is yet again peopled by characters who would feel at home in a Hal Hartley movie or a Chris Morris sketch ... expertly crafted, Pastoralia is that rare beast: social satire that lacks trite conclusions and is actually funny'

FACE.

'As in CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Saunders is a sharply distinctive writer who finds room for humour in the gap between emotion and imagination'

DAILY TELEGRAPH.

'Fevered, techni-coloured and zippy. Saunders' first collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline was garlanded with praise by Thomas Pynchon and Tobias Wolff and Pastoralia more than lives up to the favourable billing. Saunders is a wildly imaginative comic writer'

SUNDAY HERALD.

'Like a literary take on American Beauty'

SELECT.

'Captures the inherent craziness of modern America whilst maintaining a guileless charm all of its own ... a book to treasure'

BIG ISSUE.

'George Saunders rang my bell with Pastoralia, funny and angry stories raging against the bland cruelty of corporate America and speaking up for its blue-collar victims'

Alan Thomson, Books of the Year, HERALD 'Saunders gets critical acclaim all over the place, and deservedly so ... this book is so odd it defies definition but has to be recommended. Saunders' literary landscapes are familiar yet warped, amusing but sad and often just downright weird ... it's like Monty Python mixed with John Waters with some Jerry Springer thrown in for good measure. Very kooky and cool'

QX INTERNATIONAL.

Also available by the same author.

THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL.

Includes the In Persuasion Nation collection.

Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. But when Inner Horner suddenly shrinks, forcing three-quarters of the citizen in residence over the border into Outer Horner territory, the Outer Hornerites declare an Invasion in Progress having fallen under the spell of the power-hungry and demagogic Phil. So begins his brief and very frightening reign...

The novella is followed by In Persuasion Nation, a collection of stories by turns touching, funny and sad, and set in a warped, hilarious yet very recognisable American landscape.

Buy this book at www.bloomsbury.com/georgesaunders.

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