Description

One pet crow fights to save humanity from an apocalypse in this uniquely hilarious debut from a genre-bending literary author.

About the Author

Kira Jane Buxton’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle, Washington, home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.

Praise For…

“Hollow Kingdom is a nature book for our own age, an
exuberant, glittering, hard-hitting mashup of Dawn of the Dead and The
Incredible Journey. It’s an adventure lit by strange myths, brand-names,
television and smartphone screens, a fable with teeth and claws about animals
making new lives amongst the ruins of humanity. It’s transformative, poignant,
and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite
apocalyptic hero.”—Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk

“A plucky hero, a
boisterous tale, startling prose and eerie events combine for a thoroughly
enjoyable account of the end of the world as we know it. The Secret
Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead.”—Karen Joy Fowler, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“I love this book so much! I wanted to set it on fire
while hugging it. I wanted to hasten the apocalypse just to see how my own pets
fare in a more humane world without humans. Kira Jane Buxton’s voice is fresh,
like a newly dug grave, but so joyful and honest you’ll laugh out loud, and
then check to make sure you haven’t lost an eyeball. Hollow Kingdom is a
wildly original debut and a paean to my favorite city.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“Hollow Kingdom offers a
bird’s-eye view of the apocalypse we all want and need-especially when the bird
in question is a plucky, Cheeto-loving domesticated crow . . . With
infinite heart and humor, Kira Jane Buxton’s fine-feathered narrator guides us
through richly imagined animal realms while braving the terrifying collapse of
the human world. A dazzling, wholly original debut, revealing the great
paradox of humanity’s fatal flaws and resilient spirit.”—Mona Awad, author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny

“Everything
you’re hearing about Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom–that it’s wildly
original and inventive, funny and profane–is wonderfully true. But even better,
this book is timely, smart, movingly written, and beautifully concluded.”—Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is and member of the Seattle7 Writers

“What a surprising,
funny, terrifying, marvelous, wholly original novel! Buxton combines a vivid
horror show (think zombies and the gruesome, bloody extinction of man) with a
touching love story between the unlikeliest of BFFs: a crow, a hound, and a man
who’s had a tough go of things on Tinder, and that was before his eyeball fell
out. With humor and a style that brings to mind Tom Robbins and Karen Russell,
Buxton’s debut is heartwarming and heart stopping, hilarious and tragic.”—Amy Poeppel, author of Limelight and Small Admissions

“A hilariously exuberant
and heart-bursting fable for our times, Hollow Kingdom reminds us that
creativity and determination (and a whole lot of love) can go a long way toward
saving the world. When Mr. Rogers said to look for the helpers, who knew that
might mean a salty-mouthed crow and a faithful bloodhound?”—Jennie Shortridge, bestselling author of Love Water Memory and member of the Seattle7 Writers

“If you’ve
ever thought that humans were the ones in charge, Kira Jane Buxton’s
groundbreaking novel will have you thinking otherwise. Full of
unforgettable humor, insight and beauty, Hollow Kingdom enriches our
human experience by inhabiting the minds (and bellies!) of our non-human
animal companions and reminding us that we’re not alone here on this
earth.”—Ruth Ozeki, nationally bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being

“Hollow Kingdom is a grown-up’s Watership
Down for our times — or the end of them. Kira Jane Buxton has created a crow
so full of personality you won’t even miss the company of humans, who are
devolving at hyper-speed rates into something sub-literate and grotesque. But
Buxton shows there’s humor in our plight and strength in tenderness, and she
portrays the intelligence and astounding beauty of the natural world in a
completely fresh way. This book is a triumphant feat of imagination, and it had
me believing that the bonds we’ve formed with our pets might help them save us
after all. I’ll never look at a corvid the same way again.”—Zoe Zolbrod, author of The Telling and Currency and former editor at The Rumpus

“Wow. Hilarious or horrifying? Sassy or
wise? Hollow Kingdom is a surprise and a marvel: a razor sharp and
satisfying warning about the coming apocalypse, told by one of the most
engaging narrators I have met in a long time. Good fiction makes you
think. It turns you upside down and makes you realize that you recognize
the world from that vantage point. Hollow Kingdom is that good fiction,
and so much more.”

—Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, author of Shadow Child

“Buxton spins a fresh, alarming apocalypse from the perspectives of intelligent, communicative animals in her hilarious debut . . . S.T.’s complicated personality and the masterful blend of humor and tragedy make this novel an eloquent, emotional exploration of survival during an unthinkable cataclysm.”—Publishers Weekly

“Buxton’s quirky ideas and compelling nonhuman characters will satisfy literary fiction and zombie genre enthusiasts alike who are looking for something beguilingly different.”—Booklist

“Hollow Kingdom combines dark subject matter with an oddball sense of humor in what proves to be a winning formula . . . a surprising, funny, genre-bending novel, an environmentalist parable crossed with an epic adventure story, difficult to describe and even more difficult to put down.”—Shelf Awareness

“Surprisingly tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and deliciously strange . . . a joy to read.”—BuzzFeed

“Pick up this delightfully weird book for a change from the usual–we promise it’s like nothing you’ve read before.”—Good Housekeeping

“Kira Jane Buxton’s hilariously philosophical and formidable first novel tackles humankind’s most existential questions . . . Buxton does a stellar job of anthropomorphizing the novel’s animals and adding drama, suspense, tragedy and hope. It’s amazing that such a bizarre and far-fetched story can connect so deeply with our reality and its discussions about social media, climate change, immigration and self-identity. It doesn’t get any weirder, funnier or better than Hollow Kingdom.”—BookPage

“Literary debuts don’t get much more high-concept than this.”—Entertainment Weekly

About the Author

SUSAN STRAIGHT has published eight novels, including Highwire Moon, Between Heaven and Here, and A Million Nightingales. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the National Magazine Award. She is the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the O. Henry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her stories and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Granta, McSweeney’s, Black Clock, Harper’s, and other journals. Her work has been translated into Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Turkish, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, and Russian. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family.

A stunningly imaginative novel about the Cold War, the Russian space program, and the amazing fraud that pulled the wool over the eyes of the world.

It’s 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space program is a sham. Well, half a sham. While the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, the Chief Designer and his team have never successfully brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they’ve used twins. But in a nation built on secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is about to unravel.

Because there are no more twins left.

Combining history and fiction, the real and the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the last of the twins. Taken in 1950 from a life of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identity, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid has launched to certain death (or so one might think…), and the other is sent on a press tour under the watchful eye of Ignatius, the government agent who knows too much but gives away little. And while Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful project, the Chief Designer must scramble to perfect a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like dog for the first canine mission.

By turns grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping novel of the heights of mankind’s accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the people–and canines–with whom we create family.

About the Author

Zach Powers is the author of Gravity Changes, which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize, and his work has appeared in such places as American Short Fiction, Black Warrior Review, The Conium Review, and the Tin House blog. First Cosmic Velocity is his first novel.

Praise For…

“Powers’ writing style is delicate and almost otherworldly; as in his collection of stories, Gravity Changes, each word is carefully chosen, every sentence deliberately flowing into the next…Scenes centered on the characters’ emotional lives are touching, and the dreamy tone brings a touch of fantasy without pushing too far into whimsy. A lovely and hopeful story from a promising writer.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[An] entertaining and winning debut novel…Through [the intriguing premise] Powers refracts glimpses of the competitive Soviet space program and its personnel [and] the sometimes absurd politics of the Khrushchev era…Powers’s deadpan depiction of the ruse that drives his tale and the historical figures duped by it will give readers pause to wonder if it really is that improbable.”—Publishers Weekly

“Powers masterfully evokes postwar Russia and his inventive plot offers moments of tenderness and grace along with interjections of dark humor. Themes of family, home, and identity are explored with great pathos and psychological acuity. The dichotomy of national ambition versus the day-to-day heroism of citizens is a timely and timeless reminder of what makes a nation great. For fans of Anthony Marra.”—Booklist

“For fans of: Original alternate histories and juicy tales of Soviet secrets. Read it for: The psychological burden placed on the twins who are selected to survive.”—BookPage

“[First Cosmic Velocity] is full of attention to physical, geographic and historic detail, but what makes it a truly gripping work of imagination is its ability to create an emotional reality for its lead character amid an ambitious, delightfully strange look at a different version of the Soviet space program…[Powers’s] attention to emotional detail, combined with a powerful supporting cast and a masterful sense of historical table-setting, makes First Cosmic Velocity a delightfully complex page-turner for space enthusiasts and fans of alternate histories. You will never look at the space race the same way again.”—BookPage.com

“Each fictionalized twist in Powers’ darkly whimsical world illuminates something true about human nature and man’s obsession with greatness. The dialogue is at once exact, grim, and hopeful…This book is fantastical, yes, but it is also clear-eyed, original, and an exciting read.”—Do Savannah

“Mixing history and fiction, the book isn’t so much about the foibles of geopolitics as it is about one man’s search for truth in a world built on lies.”—The Millions

“I ate this right up. Boldly imagined and deeply human, Zach Powers’ re-creation of the Russian space program is a story that will entertain you, and then haunt you.”—Michael Poore, author of Reincarnation Blues

“Beguiling and artful, First Cosmic Velocity is an absorbing tale of ambition and desire.  Blending folklore and alternate history, conspiracy theory and historical detail, Powers forms a compelling narrative of strange propaganda that conceals far stranger truths.”—Tom Sweterlitsch, author of The Gone World

“In the darkly comic vein of Martin Amis and Mark Leyner, First Cosmic Velocity mixes the earnest with the satirical and the profound with the absurd for a ride through a fictionalized Russian space program that is as thought-provoking as it is fun.”—Courtney Maum, author of Touch and Costalegre

More Praise for Zach Powers

“A wonderfully vertiginous, through-the-looking-glass story collection, packed with Powers’s one-of-a-kind humor and insight. With his extraordinary imagination and vitalizing prose, Powers can make anything live, and does. He is fluently conversant with the Devil, the dead, children, animals, astronauts, and newlyweds―and this is just a partial roster of the wild crew aboard this ship. Goofy and profound, lyrical and exhilarating, Gravity Changes is a thrilling, rocket-fueled debut.”—Karen Russell

An original and magical map of our world and its riches, formed of the stories of the small-scale harvests of seven natural objects

In this beguiling book, Edward Posnett journeys to some of the most far-flung locales on the planet to bring us seven wonders of the natural world–eiderdown, vicuña fiber, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano, and edible birds’ nests–that promise ways of using nature without damaging it. To the rest of the world these materials are mere commodities, but to their harvesters they are imbued with myth, tradition, folklore, and ritual, and form part of a shared identity and history.

Strange Harvests follows the journeys of these uncommon products from some of the most remote areas of the world to its most populated urban centers, drawing on the voices of the people and little-known communities who harvest, process, and trade them. Blending history, travel writing, and interviews, Posnett sets these human stories against our changing economic and ecological landscape. What do they tell us about capitalism, global market forces, and overharvesting? How do local microeconomies survive in a hyperconnected world? Is it possible for us to live together with different species? Strange Harvests makes us see the world with wonder, curiosity, and new concern.

About the Author

Edward Posnett was born in London. After a spell working in financial services, he started writing about nature, markets, and trade. His fascination with the Icelandic tradition of eiderdown harvesting led him to write “Eiderdown,” winner of the Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize, and sparked this first book. He lives in Philadelphia.

Praise For…

“Edward Posnett has written an exceptional first book; Strange Harvests is a subtle, fascinating braiding of travel, cultural and natural history, ethnography and economic analysis; a modern-day Wunderkammer with echoes of Pico Iyer as well as Sir Thomas Browne. Clear-eyed but never blithe, Posnett records the destructiveness of market rapacity as well as rare, hopeful examples of human and more-than-human harmony. It is a pleasure and an education to journey with him in these pages.” —Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland and The Old Ways

“An original and bracing read. Posnett engages the reader sensually, intellectually, and poetically, dispelling any sense of separateness between our human existence and the material goods that rise from the earth and pass through our hands. The great gift of this book is that it inspires us to look with new depth into the varied stuff of life, and with this widened perspective, to act with care, grace, intelligence, and joy.” —Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Crow Planet and Mozart’s Starling

“A beautiful exploration of our fraught connections with other species. With seemingly boundless curiosity, Posnett invites us on journeys through the surprising webs created by international trade. Uniting these stories from around the world are essential questions for our time: Is a balance between humans and the rest of nature possible? Or do we inevitably destroy what we harvest and desire? Full of surprise, delight, and horror, these lively tales illuminate and captivate.” —David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and The Forest Unseen

“[An] evocative look at precious natural objects . . . Posnett aims to record ‘for posterity’ the wondrous details of these objects—and he succeeds marvelously.” —Publishers Weekly 

“Posnett scours the globe for natural commodities that sustain a balance in which consumption doesn’t lead to destruction and harvesting involves replenishing and renewal . . . An engrossing tale of wonder.” —Kirkus Reviews