Bald New World
Peter Tieryas Liu
(Author)
Description
From the author of the bestselling United States of Japan, and longlisted for the 2015 Folio Prize, Bald New World is a dark exploration of human vanity in a hairless world.What if you woke up one morning and everyone in the world lost their hair? In Bald New World, that very event happens and overnight, religion, politics, and fashion undergo dramatic shifts. Nick Guan and his friend Larry Chao are a pair of eccentric filmmakers who choose to explore the existential angst of their balding world through cinema. Larry is heir to one of the most lucrative wig companies in the world. Nick is a man who's trying to make sense of the tatters of his American Dream. Taking place throughout China and America, the pair set off on a series of misadventures involving North Korean spies, veterans of an African War, and digital cricket fighters. Their journey leads them to discover some of the darkest secrets behind wig-making and hair in a hairless world.Product Details
Price
$16.95
Publisher
Perfect Edge
Publish Date
May 30, 2014
Pages
229
Dimensions
5.57 X 0.51 X 8.71 inches | 0.61 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781782795087
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Peter Tieryas Liu is the author of Watering Heaven and Dr. 2. He was the recipient of the 2012 Fiction Award from Mojo, the magazine run by Wichita State University. He has also worked as a technical writer for LucasArts, the gaming division of LucasFilm. He lives in Los Angeles.
Reviews
Bald New World is a hypnotic, surreal, and insightful novel, blending Blade Runner and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to create a dark, funny, and captivating story. One of the best books I've read this year.--Richard Thomas
Bald New World included in Publishers Weekly's list of BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2014. Perhaps a century in the future, all humans suddenly go bald, putting wig factory owners like filmmaker and womanizer Larry Chao in the spotlight. Larry's best friend, cameraman Nicholas Guan, fights for his own identity in this thought-provoking story where fakery is preferred over the real. Liu (Dr. 2) crafts a vivid, imaginative setting with lush descriptive phrases: 'Beijing had become a city of vapors, a metropolis of neon calligraphy... Store names floated in mid-air, Mandarin phrases wandered the alleys like unforgiven spirits, and a sentence cried for redemption, crucified in mist.' What begins as a broad farce with spy girls and gadgets gradually becomes a serious commentary on the nature of self. Nick struggles against those who would reform, use, or manipulate him, trying to find himself in a world strewn with literal false faces. Gorgeous language choices combine with Nick's philosophical journey of personal discovery to create a deceptively deep story.--Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2014
Bald New World included in Publishers Weekly's list of BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2014. Perhaps a century in the future, all humans suddenly go bald, putting wig factory owners like filmmaker and womanizer Larry Chao in the spotlight. Larry's best friend, cameraman Nicholas Guan, fights for his own identity in this thought-provoking story where fakery is preferred over the real. Liu (Dr. 2) crafts a vivid, imaginative setting with lush descriptive phrases: 'Beijing had become a city of vapors, a metropolis of neon calligraphy... Store names floated in mid-air, Mandarin phrases wandered the alleys like unforgiven spirits, and a sentence cried for redemption, crucified in mist.' What begins as a broad farce with spy girls and gadgets gradually becomes a serious commentary on the nature of self. Nick struggles against those who would reform, use, or manipulate him, trying to find himself in a world strewn with literal false faces. Gorgeous language choices combine with Nick's philosophical journey of personal discovery to create a deceptively deep story.--Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2014
