Good People

Stories of lives lost and found at the crossroads of the ordinary, the bizarre, the tragic, and the comic

About the author

Robert Lopez is the author of two novels, Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River, and two story collections, Asunder and Good People (forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press). Among other places, his fiction has appeared in the American Reader, BOMB, Brooklyn Rail, Hobart, Indiana Review, Literarian, Nerve, New York Tyrant, Vice, and the Norton anthology Sudden Fiction Latino. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches fiction writing at The New School, Pratt Institute, Columbia University, and the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College.

Summary

Stories of lives lost and found at the crossroads of the ordinary, the bizarre, the tragic, and the comic

Foreword

Co-op available

Significant bound galley printing for media and booksellers. Additional eGalley distribution to media, booksellers, and librarians through Edelweiss

National print, public radio, and online campaigns, targeting NPR; coverage in all major newspapers; literary magazines (New Yorker, Harper’s, etc.); and literary / pop culture magazines (Believer, Rain Taxi, etc.) as well as popular literary websites and blogs such as Electric Literature, Rumpus, Nervous Breakdown, and Largehearted Boy

Tour to include AWP Conference & Bookfair presentation (Los Angeles, CA; Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2016), bookstore appearances in New York, and other university campus events TBD

Simultaneous eBook publication and promotion

Postcards available

Promotion possible through the Storyville app

Promotional support from many of the literary magazines and online journals where these stories first appeared in print

Academic marketing plans include Consortium Required Reading newsletter advertising and outreach to prominent Literature and MFA programs

Giveaways through Goodreads and LibraryThing

Blurbs possible from Jess Walter, George Saunders, Dan Chaon, Amy Hempel, Nathan Englander, Christine Schutt, Lynne Tillman, and Deb Olin Unferth

Video trailer in development

Promotion through the author’s blog (http://kambybolongomeanriver.blogspot.com) and BLP’s social media networks and website (www.blpress.org)

Marketing and publicity efforts supported by Molly Mikolowski of A Literary Light

Additional text

BOMB magazine Books Preview selection
Bookish Fiction Preview selection
Vol. 1 Brooklyn Preview selection
Big Other “Most Anticipated Small Press Book” selection
Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book” selection
Library Journal “BookExpo America Book That Buzzed” selection
New York Public Library Staff Pick
Oakland Public Library “10 Great Reasons to Read Fiction” selection

“Lopez’s methodical narrators will draw comparisons to Beckett, but they also share DNA with the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, showcasing out-of-touch anxiety cases in all their poetically elliptical glory. . . . Lopez has the ability to give the reader whiplash with his unconventional and bewitching stories.” —Los Angeles Times

“These [stories are] trance-like rants, full of strange dark bitter, bitter comedy. Nobody else does whatever the hell it is [Lopez]’s doing better than he does.” —BOMB magazine

“Whatever you believe about what separates good people from bad ones, forget it. Robert Lopez will challenge all of those assumptions in this arresting short story collection.” —Bookish

“[Lopez’s] style is what would happen if Al Camus and Gertrude Stein teamed up to take down Hemingway.” —JMWW Journal

“Dark humor finds its way into these confessional stories and throughout the collection, the diverse voices ring true. Lopez has said music played a big part in his experience growing up, and it’s apparent in Good People that his writing has found its rhythm.” —Raleigh Review

“Remarkably intimate. . . . Deliciously clever.” —Best New Fiction

“Lopez does amazing things with prose, tone, and sparsity.” —Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Lopez uses a close point of view to maximum effect, drawing the reader into each character’s mindset; despite the sense of complicity this imparts, the dark humor and discomfort of these stories provides just as much enlightenment.” —Late Night Library

“One of Lopez's many gifts is being able to make accessible, through humor and wit, what might otherwise frighten us. Good People makes us question our own ideas about morality and the weight of our thoughts and actions, all the while entertaining us with the plights of others.” —About.com

“Read [Good People] to stumble into the sunlight afterward. . . . Depressing, inventive, and marvelous—a thought-provoking path to feeling awful.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Tightly knit. . . . Recommended for lovers of darkly humorous, strangely illuminating fiction.” —Booklist

“Personalities ranging from the amusingly neurotic to the borderline psychotic shape the 20 quirky stories in this collection. . . . Lopez shows uncommon skill at evoking both laughs and shudders, sometimes in the same story.” —Publishers Weekly

“A dizzying, disturbing tour of what might be going on in the minds of ‘good people.’ . . . Those who enjoy dark humor with a dose of sado-masochistic sexual fantasy will take pleasure in [Lopez’s] spare prose and ability to spear a thought on first strike.” —Foreword Reviews

“Soul-crushingly dark, exceptionally well-written, and brimming with bitter wisdom, Good People is an anthology of compellingly authored masterpieces of the short story format that are very highly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review

“Master of the vandalized psyche, Lopez’s poetics combine high-octane sonic loops with desperate delusions, to form one of the most stylish and urgent books of 2016.” —TRACY O’NEILL, New York Public Library Staff Pick

“Robert Lopez’s strange, incantatory, visionary stories reveal the mysteries behind the ordinary world. You lift your head from this book and it’s as if a third eye has been opened.” —DAN CHAON, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake

“Robert Lopez is such a master of saddening hilarities that his virtuoso turns in this crazily heartbreaking, dizzyingly original new collection will restore even the most jaded reader’s faith in the fresh possibilities of American fiction.” —GARY LUTZ, author of Stories in the Worst Way

“Robert Lopez is the master of deadpan dread, of the elliptical koan, of the sudden turn of language that reveals life to be so wonderfully absurd. Always with Lopez, the voice is all his—enchanting, surprising, at times devastating.” —JESS WALTER, author of Beautiful Ruins

Product details

• Authors: Robert Lopez, Lopez Robert
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.01.2016
• EAN: 9781942658023
• ISBN: 978-1-942658-02-3
• Weight: 184 g
• Illustrations: Illustrationen, nicht spezifiziert
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Short Stories (single author), FICTION / Literary, Short Stories, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary