Andrew Mondry's brilliant, knowing, and wildly funny first novel The Passion of Saint-Jablonski is a book for and about America-not the country we want, or pretend to have, but the one we've got: mad, poor, rich, hustling, suffering, and trying for it all with a mix of hope and desperation. Mondry is the real deal-like Russell Banks meets Carl Hiaasen. Think of the tender, comic songbook of John Prine, the dreary kindness of the New England soul, and that one friend who kept threatening a move to Florida. A great novel by a great writer.
- Dan Bevacqua, author of Molly Bit
What happens when the American Dream collides with the internet age and explodes into chaos?
Stosh Saint-Jablonski, a washed-up golf prodigy, is stuck in a crumbling Florida condo complex that looks like a failed Disney World attraction. When the power-mad condo president vanishes with the community's money, Stosh is thrust into leadership-managing conspiracy theorists, wellness grifters, and internet prophets who make his old golf buddies look like Nobel laureates.
As summer heat turns brutal, so does the madness: crypto schemes masquerade as enlightenment, parking lot holy wars erupt, and a dating algorithm might be government spyware. Armed with nothing but a nine-iron and his emotional support boar Gator, Stosh must hold his fractured community together before his own sanity becomes the next casualty.
Part Catch-22, part Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this merciless satire skewers our extremely online culture with dark wit. One man's desperate attempt to maintain order becomes every modern person's battle to stay grounded in an unhinged world.
If you've ever scrolled until reality bent, this book will feel too real and too funny to put down.
