A Baltimore lawyer acquires an engaging but erratic raconteur for a client in Kun's funny, mazy third novel (after My Wife and My Dead Wife
). When corporate lawyer Hamilton "Ham" Ashe takes on his neighbor Sam Shoogey's divorce case (against his better judgment), it's the beginning of a bizarre friendship. Shoogey is a liar extraordinaire—he regales Ham with stories of killing seven men during an unspecified war, sleeping with 150 women, writing lots of books, being a college football star and the like—and Ham finds him fascinating, even if Ham's wife (the "old grapefruit," Shoogey calls her) disapproves. The story of their improbable friendship lies at the heart of Kun's book—just who is
Shoogey? And is anything he says true?—which delicately contrasts Ashe's very real family life and Shoogey's wild fantasy existence. While comedy sits on the surface of the narrative, a poignancy that borders on tragedy lies beneath in a novel that "tells the truth and lies in the same voice." Discover New Writers pick; Borders Original Voices pick; author tour.
Agent, Sandra Bond
. (June)
