Fiction
Click on covers for more info on each book.
A rollicking dark comedy of young American expats caught up in a shadowy student debt scheme, set in an imaginary—but unnervingly familiar—present-day Eastern European state
“Visegrad is very funny and very insightful—into Central Europe, into the US, into the expat mind…. While I’m rereading it, you should be getting started now on reading it the first time.” —Arthur Phillips, author of Prague and The King at the Edge of the World
“Swashbuckling their way across an imagined version of Europe, the characters in Duncan Robertson’s picaresque novel are caught in a web of deceptions and chaos. Wise-cracking, funny, and a little transgressive, they will linger in your mind long after you’ve finished this first-rate book.”
—Pauls Toutonghi, author of Evel Knievel Days, Red Weather, and Dog Gone
"Massively entertaining! . . . Make room for the new Gulliver. He has brought home news out of Kazohinia."
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
An Eastern European mail-order bride and her southern California husband clash in this dazzlingly satirical debut novel
“This comedy of errors is a page-turner, where a mail-order bride service, enough love triangles to boggle the mind, a stolen Egon Schiele painting, and a devastating fire lead the worlds of Santa Barbara and Chișinău to collide.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
"Stylistic virtuosity, penetrating emotional power, and a post-apocalyptic vision . . . a brilliant literary achievement."
—Philip K. Jason, Jewish Book Council
""A picaresque tale of the struggles of the Romany . . . in Hungary before World War II, appearing for the first time in English
. . . A rare, observant . . . snapshot of Romany life." —Kirkus Reviews
"An ode to expatriate living, culture clashes, and the heady days of early 1990s Europe, this novel is a manic, comic ride. . . . [D]arkly comic . . . immersive, nostalgic, and thoroughly enjoyable."
—Booklist
“Powerful, eye-opening reading for everyone.”
—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
"Plebanek’s crisp and intelligent new novel is full of pitch-perfect descriptions, mostly but not exclusively about sex and its contemplation. . . . A merciless comedy of modern manners and the politics of desire."
—Publishers Weekly
"Heady, dizzying writing . . . A master class in how to tell a war story."
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Brutal but with heart, as shown by the excellent colloquial translation; highly recommended for readers of tough-minded fiction, both literary and popular.”
—-Library Journal (starred review)