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Alexander Theroux, National Book Award Nominee, returns after twenty years with a compendious satire of the terrors of contemporary life. Nostalgic for the old days and old manners, a way of life lost to grace, loving from afar a mysterious beauty named Rapunzel Wisht, Eu Gene Eyestones, an erudite sex columnist for a Boston cultural magazine, fights against the rising tide of stupidity, focusing on would-be artist Laura Warholic in the hope that by saving her he can validate his ethical beliefs.

But feckless Laura and the colourful but bizarre cast of characters surrounding Eugene — brilliant bigots, nihilists, Generation-X slackers and zanies of all sexual persuasions — threaten to pull him under, leading to the novel's unforgettable conclusion, a climax of betrayal and redemption of Dostoevskyan power.

Fantagraphics, hardback, 600 pages, published September 2007