Assumption A Novel

by Everett, Percival

• ISBN13: 9781555975982
• ISBN10: 1555975984
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-25
• Publisher: Graywolf Press

Summary

A baffling triptych of murder mysteries by the author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier Ogden Walker, deputy sheriff of a small New Mexico town, is on the trail of an old woman's murderer. But at the crime scene, his are the only footprints leading up to and away from her door. Something is amiss, and even his mother knows it. As other cases pile up, Ogden gives chase, pursuing flimsy leads for even flimsier reasons. His hunt leads him from the seamier side of Denver to a hippie commune as he seeks the puzzling solution. In Assumption, his follow-up to the wickedly funny I Am Not Sidney Poitier, Percival Everett is in top form as he once again upends our expectations about characters, plot, race, and meaning. A wild ride to the heart of a baffling mystery, Assumptionis a literary thriller like no other.

Author Biography

Percival Everett is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and the author of eighteen novels, including I Am Not Sidney Poitier, The Water Cure, Wounded, Erasure, and Glyph.

Table of Contents

PRAISE FOR ASSUMPTION:

"Half zen koan, half Jim Thompson, and 100% Percival Everett, the twined mysteries of Assumption provide all the lively satisfactions of 'genre' fiction, while describing yet another arc in the trajectory of Everett's brilliant and protean career. In these spare, funny, and violent studies of the nature of identity and truth, Everett shows again that he is a learned student of the art of fiction, in addition to being one of its most able practitioners."—Christopher Sorrentino

 

"Everett ranges widely in his sometimes realistic, sometimes hallucinogenic fiction, drawing on a deep understanding of literary tradition. . . to examine social issues in limpid, muscular prose. . . . I'd encourage anyone with a taste in good, thought-provoking writing to investigate."—Barbara Hoffert, Prepub Alert, Library Journal

PRAISE FOR PERCIVAL EVERETT

"The audacious, uncategorizable Everett . . . never does the same song twice . . . Brilliant!"—The Boston Globe

"If Percival Everett isn’t already a household name, it’s because people are more interested in politics than truth."—Madison Smartt Bell