The King of Pain

Trapped beneath his entertainment system, waiting for his housekeeper to arrive and free him, outrageous reality TV mastermind Rick Salter reflects on his life and tries to piece together the events of the previous evening. Seth Kaufman's hilarious novel is a multifaceted meditation on pain and entertainment in a deranged society where the two are often interchangeable.

June 19: On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein. This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings inspired…

Very few debut novels exhibit the charm, assurance, emotional depth and bravura fabulation which the lucky reader will discover in Helene Wecker's

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