Good Friends, Good Books, and a Sleepy Conscience: This is the Ideal Life!
Gods Among Gazelles By Peter Damian Bellis 384 pages; list price: $18.95 US ISBN: 978-1-7332565-1-3 Release date: December 27, 2020 Literature/Magical Realism Gods Among Gazelles is set in the Congo (the mythic Congo, the historical Congo, and contemporary Congo) and is a blend of the mythic, the surreal, existential and nihilist imagery and philosophy, and everything African. The story focuses on the spirituality and strength of spirit that allows the people of the Congo to survive the brutality that is part of their daily lives. It is presented in four chapters. Some of the sections are written in dramatic form, some as conventional narrative. Some of the scenes reflect the black and white gloss of film noir from the 1940s, others the ephemeral quality of Edith Piaf's voice. Chapter One (the first baobab tree) is an African creation myth that provides the mythic/spiritual context for the novel. Chapter Two (the boy soldier), is an account of Tinashe, a boy soldier who is part of the red-capped army controlled by Major General Olwenyo Mahangu (whose name means god of gods born in a time of war). This chapter focuses on the moment
just before Tinashe tries to escape his life as a boy soldier, how he saves a young girl (the daughter of Jane) from being murdered, and how his life crosses paths with the other characters in the book, including the mysterious smuggler known as the Turk. Chapter Three (a god of gods born in a time of war) details the life of Major General Olwenyo Mahangu, who gained fame as the boy who tore a leopard apart with his bare hands, became a protégé of the first prime minister, Kitambala, and who later replaced Kitambala so he might press forward with his dream of a new Africa, which rests on the shifting sands foundation of an eternal revolution Chapter Four (little by little grow the bananas), is the story of the strange relationship between an American couple (Jim Daenen and Jane) and an infamous Turkish émigré named Monsieur Henri Serdar Aksu (the Turk). Monsieur Aksu saves the Americans from a military execution (after they are arrested as spies) and then gives them refuge at Obumotu Farm (the Turk’s hideout near the Ubangi River), but the respite from the violence of a country at war with itself is only temporary. Once Major General Olwenyo Mahangu sets his sights on capturing the Turk, no one is safe, and only those who are extraordinarily lucky manage to survive. Praise for Peter Damian Bellis Peter Damian Bellis’ Gods Among Gazelles is perhaps the African answer to the amazing string of Latin American dictator novels that began with the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1967, as if some combination of Roa Bastos, Gabriel García Márquez, and perhaps even the younger, more fresh Vargas Llosa combined to write a jungle fever dream. The main difference would be that Gods Among Gazelles is about now, about always, of course, given the mythological aspect, but very importantly about now, in the chaotic and catastrophic Congo of today. Yet the novel is not just about the horror of what is happening in this part of Africa, the horror of what has been happening for centuries; it is also about the beauty of Africa and the people who live there, a fierce and resilient beauty that transcends the violence, a beauty which is reflected in the prose on virtually every page. Mr. Bellis is a shaman and a shapeshifter, and my advice is catch him now before he vanishes again. —Trent Lee Stewart, author of The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007), The Secret Keepers (2016), and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (2019).
Brown Man in White Light: An Immigrant’s Romance By Deben Roy 428 pages; list price: $18.95 US ISBN: 978-1-7332565-3-7 Release date: December 26, 2020 Literature/Indian Brown Man in White Light is an immigrant’s story set in the United States after the events of September 11, when a nation previously friendly and welcoming of strangers suddenly turns hostile towards many people, including some within its own
borders. Dedicated teacher and long-time U.S. resident Robi Sen faces difficult choices after his wife decides to go back home and the authorities begin to investigate his teaching practices, resulting in suspension from his university. How he comes to terms—moving back and forth between continents—with these various personal and professional losses is the stuff of today’s immigrant lives. No longer having to dig a living out of hardscrabble earth, yet faced with many of the same challenges, each man and woman must search for their own answers. Along the way, Robi finds love and loses it, seeks friendship and community, and arrives at an answer to what the words home and belonging might mean in the age of global citizenship. Praise for Brown Man in White Light "Deben Roy’s dazzling first novel chronicles the complicated life of a professor teaching in Iowa, while telling the broader story of immigration, love and loss, familial and community ties, university life, the bittersweet concept of home, and intellectual freedom in post 9-11 America. The prose throughout is beautifully wrought and bracingly immersive. Brown Man in White Light is a novel to savor, and I can’t wait to see what Deben Roy will do next.” —Mary O’Connell, author of The Sharp Time and Dear Reader
Cynicism Management: A Rock & Roll Fable By Bori Praper 528 pages; list price: $18.95 ISBN: 978-1-7332565-5-1 Release date: December 26, 2020 Sci-Fi/Pop Culture Finnegan Frotz, an anonymous, bitter, and extraordinarily pale black musician, lyricist and compulsive cynic of German-Scottish origin, flies from Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, to Slovenia, a small country to the northeast of Italy. Upon his arrival, he joins Amalia Winegirl, songstress and occasional fling, and her half-brother Randy, bass player and amateur herb. Together they form a band called Cynicism Management and pump all their efforts into creating what can only be described as a collection of smash hit singles in odd time signatures. However, prying eyes notice Finnegan at the airport. Something has been etched into his skin, and this catches the wrong kind of attention.
Unbeknownst - at first, at least - to any of its members, Finnegan ' s band finds itself in the middle of a complex international conspiracy involving a malevolent corporation and a couple of executives with a diabolical plan. Add a colorful crowd of peculiar characters, an ad hoc group of female undercover agents, a voluptuous Portuguese nymphomaniac, a few bearded mujahideen, a sexy case of Stockholm syndrome, an online computer game, a slightly out-of-place but horny US marine , a swarm of nosy cockroaches, and Bear in Underwear to the mix ... And get ready for a rollercoaster of entangled plot lines, bizarre dialogues and ridiculous incidents, culminating in a shocking revelation. Bori Praper’s first novel is a very funny satire of life on the periphery, technology, the techno-mind, and the scatological soul of modernity. Praise for Cynicism Management “In Cynicism Management, the foreground illuminates the background no less than vice versa. All the while, as Bori Praper introduces us to his disheveled cast of dislocated characters and embroils them in a bizarre international conspiracy, he peppers the narrative with barbs, equal parts piss-take and grievance, at the stupidities and annoyances of the life in the post-Real-Socialism Slovenia. While Cynicism Management does comment, however, it never pontificates. It’s not a ‘statement’ book by any stretch. Instead, Praper uses the plentiful parody to fuel up his Yugo 55, then takes the reader on a weird, meandering ride with plenty of beer stops and no suspension to speak of.” —Dušan Rebolj, Slovenian translator and film critic "Cynicism Management reads like a satirical novel about Slovenia written from a foreign point of view, but Bori Praper is a Slovene, born and raised. So it comes as no surprise that after finishing the novel, he moved from Slovenia to Berlin. And then from Berlin to Tenerife, because he likes to keep it thorough. He also likes to keep away from any pitchfork-and-torch-wielding mobs, unhappy with their portrayal in the book." —Boštjan Gorenc-Pižama, Slovenian writer, translator, podcaster, and stand-up comedian
Crown of Beaks By Erik Martiny 458 pages; list price: $18.95 ISBN: 9781733256582 Release date: October 26, 2020 Mystery/Sci-Fi A crucified body wrapped like a mummy in packaging tape is found hanging from a wire attached to the roofline of both the Israeli and American pavilions on the opening day of the Venice Biennale. Initially, however, everyone assumes the figure is an example of hyperrealist sculpture. It isn’t until the third day when the rotting head attracts several hungry and overly aggressive seagulls, that officials realize they have a murder on their hands. To make matters worse, the victim is none other than the famous contemporary Italian artist, Marcello Mercato. Detective Inspector Paola Contini of Venice and Stieg Molloy of Interpol join forces to investigate a case that takes them far beyond the borders of Italy, and far beyond the confines of the artworld. The two detectives soon find themselves chasing down all sorts of bizarre clues, a severed hand in a box of chocolates, a farm
overrun with demon-like animals bent on destruction, Satanic cultists, a mysterious block of ice that appears to contain the body of yet another victim, a mad scientist experimenting on humans, a secret lair, strange, robotic creatures, and all of it part of some hidden master plan to destroy the world as we know it, a plan that our detectives must uncover or, well, only God (and perhaps the author) knows what will happen next. So as you might have guessed by now, Crown of Beaks is much more than a detective novel. Yes it recreates the atmospheres of southern European and Nordic noir, and so it offers the pleasure of standard detective fiction. But it is also a postmodernist riff on the detective novel genre, which means it offers alternative viewpoints about what is happening with detectives Contini and Molloy and why. Crown of Beaks is both detective novel and metafiction and will leave both crime novel enthusiasts and genre-sceptics engrossed.
Praise for Erik Martiny's Night of the Long Goodbyes
“Audacious, highly entertaining, super-literate Martiny takes risks and then he takes risks with his risks.”
—Rick Gekoski, (Author of Darke, former Booker Prize judge and Chair of the International Man Booker)
“Erik Martiny is recommended reading.”
—Amélie Nothomb
“Funny, irreverent, politically and socially engaged, wonderfully and persistently inventive, Martiny’s novels delight. They take traditions
and conventions, cherish them and turn them inside out.”
—David Malcolm, The London Magazine
Praise for Erik Martiny's Crown of Beaks
“A most imaginative and suspenseful riff on Thomas De Quincey’snotion of murder as one of the fine arts.”
—Hervé Fischer, artist-philosopher and
founder of the sociological art movement
Sea Above, Sun Below
By George Salis
RIVER BOAT BOOKS IS NO LONGER PUBLISHING SEA ABOVE, SUN BELOW. HOWEVER, THE BOOK IS STILL AVAILABLE FROM GEORGE SALIS ON AMAZON, SO IF YOU WISH TO PURCHSE A COPY, CLICK THE LINK BELOW.
Upside-down lightning, a group of uncouth skydivers, resurrections, a mother’s body overtaken by a garden, aquatic telepathy, a peeling snake-priest, and more.
Sea Above, Sun Below is influenced by Western myths, some Greek, some with biblical overtones, resulting in a fusion of fantastic dreams, bizarre yet beautiful nightmares, and multiple narrative threads that form a tapestry which depicts the fragility of characters teetering on the brink of madness.
Praise for George Salis
“I have read Sea Above, Sun Below with great delight, find it ‘a cacophony of jubilation,’ and I love the boldness of Salis’ characters, his wit, and the dash of his writing. There is electricity on every page, reminding me of what Dr. Sam Johnson said of Dr. Birch, ‘As soon as he takes up his pen, it turns into a tornado.'”
– Alexander Theroux, author of Darconville’s Cat and Laura Warholic
“George Salis has an exhilarating gift. The overall breadth of the book, the cinematic quality, and the ease with which he juggles all the voices are terrific. It’s masterfully orchestrated, vast in scope, and fearless.”
– Rikki Ducornet, author of the Tetralogy of Elements
“The prose is delightfully various in its effects and the humor has propulsive force. I was really impressed with Salis’ ability to move between styles and genre riffs with such elan. Sea Above, Sun Below is quite distinctive—an adventurous read.”
– Alan Singer, author of The Inquisitor’s Tongue and Memory Wax
