Showing titles in Absurdist

Before the clocks stopped, Narwhal Slotterfield was an ordinary basketball referee. He blew his whistle. He stretched the rules. He even had a girlfriend. But then the clock thing happened. Now it’s 7:23 p.m., Narwhal’s in a diner in the middle of the Great Plains, and now is all he’s got.

Evoking such classics as Elmer Gantry and The Day of the Locust, William Giraldi's About Face boldly transfers the perennial literary themes of celebrity, ambition, and obsession to twenty-first-century Boston. There we meet Val Face, a charismatic self-help guru who captivates multitudes with his uncanny ability to heal adherents using only the power of his words, the mysterious touch of his hands, and the transcendent beauty of his face.

Mistaking an ad to join the titular The Loneliest Band in France for one to sell his blood, Migara de Silva, the novella’s narrator—a Sri Lankan student, new to Montpellier—finds himself, instead, under the sway of the band, drinking heavily and being recruited to play a battle-of-the-bands-esque concert (that night) at the local Café Bovary with its four members: Noël, Guy, Lucien, and Michel. Not only is there prize money attached to the concert, the bandmates also see this as an opportunity to debut a new song—one, they claim, that can hurt—even kill—its listeners.

En una lúgubre ciudad de Europa del Este, que cubren al ocaso las brumas del río y enfrían las nieves nocturnas, un joven médico y su viejo mentor capturan a un vagabundo de porte monumental. Lo retienen en un sótano donde, ayudados por una sumisa asistente, han montado su laboratorio. Acorazado en un espléndido guardapolvo, el aspirante a galeno emprende su viril empresa sacrificial en favor de la ciencia.

As head of the crisis management team at a Madison Avenue PR firm, Leonard Lundell spends his days counseling executives whose reputations have been ruined by scandal. But Leonard has been managing a strange and debilitating crisis of his own that’s held him captive his entire adult life: Leonard likes to eat soap, pencils, paint chips—anything with no nutritional value. For years, he’s kept his compulsion hidden behind a professional veneer.

Step into an alternate universe unlike any you've ever seen. Join Billy Boustany as he stumbles upon a secret that will change his life forever. In this parallel world, his sleepy midwestern city transforms into a bustling metropolis filled with iridescent skyscrapers, wild parties, and quirky characters. Going there is the most fun Billy?s ever had.

What happens when a cop decides to take on a lion? Nothing good, I'll tell you that! Officer Bazzar just wants to get on with his life, but there's a lion who won't leave him alone! How is he ever going to get rid of him? Buy now and find out!

In this audacious and honest debut, a college student’s life in New York City serves as a satirical endorsement of modern life everywhere. Collin finds the self-service kiosks at McDonald’s consistent and calming in an otherwise chaotic world. He stands before one, swiping through the interactive menu as a way to ground himself more firmly in his reality—a reality of video games, posting furniture on Craigslist, and chatting with strangers on Discord. He mutters, “No man is an island,” and then realizes he hasn't spoken out loud since he last said, “semipermeable membrane."

Who hasn't dreamed of finding a fortune in gold? After Juan Verdugo and Willy Jent are fired from their jobs as car detailers at a dealership, a desire for gold possesses them. Locating a lost mine, however, means they have to outsmart a kid, a huge challenge for this pair. With an idea of where some lost gold might be, they search for a truck with an intact transmission that isn't full of feral cats. Of course, abandoned mines aren't safe places either, a fact especially true for these buddies.

Das frühe Meisterwerk des niederländischen-Bestseller-Autors - erstmals auf Deutsch. Menschen, die nichts werden können, müssen das werden, was sie spielen. Für den jungen François Lepeltier, der hier scheinbar unbedarft seine Lebensgeschichte ausbreitet, ist das die Essenz des Überlebens. Von der Mutter, einem Zimmermädchen mit kleptomanischen Anwandlungen, wird François in der Pension Sonnenhügel in Baden-Baden aufgezogen.

Experienced Halloween haunters Ray and Getty have won the Samhain Award for their horrifying haunts for the last nine years. When their cheating rival Del Mondo breaks the rules and steals their 10th win, Ray and Getty must resort to the spookiest means necessary to reclaim their titles. In part two, the duo face the aftermath of their competition with Del as they shift from Halloween spooky to Christmas cheer in order for Ray to save his marriage and claim the crown of best holiday decorator in the land.

Before Derek Christian became the confused hero, pawn of the universe, and reluctant cosmic adventurer of the Intergalactic novels, he was a simple copywriter at a radio station in Atlanta, WRFA: Radio Free America. This story tells how his writer's block set off a domino effect of murder and cosmic intrigue as The Fear chases him to his breaking point, and how he manages to escape into a world not of his own making.

Size matters. Or at least it does to Ed, nitpicking quantity surveyor and captain of his local pub football team who has faked a business trip abroad to get some cheap plastic surgery. Ed intends to be even more of a man upon his return. But has he managed to keep this as secret as he thinks? Will this really be such a wonderful surprise for Fiona on their wedding night? And just who is this operation for anyway?

Due anni, otto mesi e ventotto notti. Il tempo in cui le regole del mondo si rovesciano e strani, inspiegabili fenomeni iniziano ad accadere sulla terra: un giardiniere dal passato tormentato si alza una mattina levitando, un disegnatore di fumetti si trova obbligato allo scontro con il suo personaggio più riuscito, in una sala del municipio viene trovata una neonata dai poteri soprannaturali, un compositore lancia inquietanti profezie, e una giovane e seducente cacciatrice d'oro viene assoldata per una guerra al di là di ogni immaginazione.

Am Morgen seines dreißigsten Geburtstages wird der Bankangestellte Josef K. verhaftet. Doch wieso? Er hat keinerlei Schuldbewusstsein. Auch kann er sich weiterhin frei bewegen und seiner Arbeit nachgehen. K. will herausfinden, was vorgeht, und dringt immer tiefer in einen labyrinthischen Albtraum einer Bürokratie, in der es keine Antworten gibt... Kafkas Romanfragment wurde nach seinem Tode veröffentlicht.

A doomed couple argues over the inevitable. A man weeps when he's finally given the structure he's needed. A stilted voicemail over a date that never happened. With a ballast of wit and reality, William Steffey’s second published work takes on the abstraction of love and does away with frivolity—grounding the listener in snapshots of fulfillment, heartbreak, and reverie. He and She sidesteps the conventional tropes and is privy to the crevices where real love hides.

Was hat es mit dem "malproperen Paket" auf sich, welches beim Einchecken, so gar nicht nach dem Besitztum des "Ästheten" Professor Kaspar Moritz Mauzfies aussehend, bereits in der Doppelkabine auf dem Tisch wartet? Nicht die einzige Überraschung, welche die Schiffspassage auf der "Bocognano" nach Korsika bereithält. Die Reise wird Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts für den Protagonisten zu einem absurd-surreal-psychedelischen Trip...

Benjamin was never the sharpest tool in the shed. For as long as he can remember, he’s longed for adventure in far-away lands. But every day he wakes up in the same boring suburb, where nothing ever happens.

The Metamorphosis is a story about a man who wakes up transformed into a bug and the repercussions it has on his life and the people around him. What does it all mean? It is most probably an autobiography of how Kafka himself experienced early life living with his parents. Kafka describes how he endured his mother and father's financial and emotional exploitations, to the point of detaching from them and thereby ceasing to be their son (the real metamorphosis).