Fiction - Satire

On April Fool's Day in 1856, a shape-shifting grifter boards a Mississippi riverboat to expose the pretenses, hypocrisies, and self-delusions of his fellow passengers. The con artist assumes numerous identities -- a disabled beggar, a charity fundraiser, a successful businessman, an urbane gentleman --...

A wickedly funny dystopian parody set in a financially apocalyptic future America, from the critically acclaimed author of Triburbia.In a future America that feels increasingly familiar, you are your credit score. Extreme wealth inequality has created a class of have-nothings: Subprimes. Their bad credit...

As he watched the countryside fly past, Rick was reminded of the journey up to Scotland. So much had changed that it didn't seem like only four days since the trip had begun. The same time the previous week, Rick had been going through...

This story centers on the invention of a reactor that can annihilate matter to produce cheap and abundant energy. Unfortunately, it produces something else as a by-product, the absolute. The absolute is a spiritual essence that according to some religious philosophies allegedly permeates all...

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Sweet Dreams is a collection of short stories and poetry. In them, in an amusing way, the author narrates about moral virtues, human vices, and the myriad of consequences that they may lead to.An elephant and a mouse becoming best...

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a landmark satirical novel by Anita Loos. In it we follow the diary entries of Lorelei Lee a blond flapper from Little Rock complete with spelling and grammar errors. What follows is a delightful romp as we discover that Lorelei...

An Eastern European mail-order bride and her southern California husband clash in this dazzlingly written, rollicking comedy of mannersAuthor: Alta IflandISBN-10: 1734537914ISBN-13: 9781734537918Publisher: New Europe BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 05/18/2021Pages: 320Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.88lbsSize: 8.10h x 5.50w x 0.90d

Carlton Mellick III, the godfather of bizarro fiction, is back with a tribute to the unintentionally terrifying children's commercials of the '70s and '80s. Only Petey remembers the Fruit Fun cereal commercials of the 1980s. He remembers how warped and disturbing they were. He...

Dr. Edith Vane, scholar of English literature, is contentedly ensconced at the University of Inivea. Her dissertation on pioneer housewife memoirist Beulah Crump-Withers is about to be published, and her job's finally safe, if she only can fill out her AAO properly. She's a...

The incredible breakout novel by one of the sharpest, funniest, most inventive writers of our time. "Who is Nell Zink? She claims to be an expatriate living in northeast Germany. Maybe she is; maybe she isn't. I don't know. I do know that this...

A dazzling fourth novel by the author of The Recognitions, Carpenter's Gothic, and JR uses his considerable powers of observation and satirical sensibilities to take on the American legal system.Author: William GaddisISBN-10: 0684800527ISBN-13: 9780684800523Publisher: Scribner Book CompanyLanguage: EnglishPublished: 02/10/1995Pages: 512Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.22lbsSize: 8.03h x...

A New York Times Notable Book, Want Not offers funny and occasionally devastating "portraits of humanity...as beautifully mundane and unique as a fingerprint." (Entertainment Weekly)"Wonderful...the work of a fluid, confident and profoundly talented writer." --Dave Eggers A highly inventive and corrosively funny story of...

Now reissued--one of the most beloved novels by the New York Times bestselling author in which dedicated, if somewhat demented, environmentalists battle sleazy real estate developers in the Florida Keys.Author: Carl HiaasenISBN-10: 044669570XISBN-13: 9780446695701Publisher: Grand Central PublishingLanguage: EnglishPublished: 05/09/2005Pages: 448Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.81lbsSize: 8.06h x...

When Scat comes up with the idea for the hottest new soda ever, he's sure he'll retire the next rich, savvy marketing success story. But in the treacherous waters of corporate America there are no sure things--and suddenly Scat has to save not only...

In 2017, Aleksand? Eaton is cancelled by an online woke mob. Shortly thereafter, his defenestrators begin mysteriously disappearing. The police bring him in for questioning, but more of these woke warriors continue disappearing while he's in police custody, so the cops have to let...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST - NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED - NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS...

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, MEN'S JOURNAL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, KANSAS CITY STAR, BROOKLYN MAGAZINE, NPR, HUFFINGTON POST, THE DAILY BEAST, AND BUZZFEEDWINNER OF THE 2015 ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR...

Set against the vivid backdrop of modern-day Africa--a continent now primarily populated with wildlife of the two-legged sort--Lionel Shriver's Game Control is a wry, grimly comic tale of bad ideas and good intentions. Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya...

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING AMY ADAMS - In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. - "A must-read for anyone who can't get enough of the ever-blurring line...

A screaming snowman plummets from the top floor of Cleveland Mercy Hospital-a decaying relic built before the first pandemic-and disappears into the snow drifts below. By the time his thawed corpse is discovered the following spring, a body count of incompetents, frauds, and crooks...

Crome Yellow (1921) is a novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Inspired by his stay at Garsington Manor with members of the Bloomsbury Group, Crome Yellow, Huxley's debut novel, satirizes the society of England's intellectual and political elite. In addition to its autobiographical content,...

From the bestselling author of Dumped, Actually comes a hilarious, heartfelt story about marriage, divorce and what the hell happens next.Amy and Joel's honeymoon in the Maldives was the perfect week of love, sun, sex and a free minibar...but unfortunately, it was also the...

40th anniversary edition'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer Lanark, a modern vision of hell set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, tells the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan Thaw. A work of extraordinary imagination, its playful narrative conveys a...

"...A powerful roller coaster of emotions that still makes time to probe themes of discrimination and entitlement. Readers will be hooked." Publishers Weekly A Coming of Age Shapeshifter Story For centuries, humans descended on shifters' lands, killing and claiming. They devoured all in their...

The Red Room (Swedish: R da rummet) is a Swedish novel by August Strindberg that was first published in 1879. A satire of Stockholm society, it has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel. In this novel Strindberg reflects his own experiences...

An unabridged, unaltered edition of Mark Twain's controversial work written in 1909 though not put into print till 1962; to include the original Prologue, and all 11 Letters to archangels Gabriel and Michael, with any footnotes.Author: Mark TwainISBN-10: 1603868208ISBN-13: 9781603868204Publisher: Merchant BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 11/24/2019Pages:...

Known for his cute, disturbing, and utterly absurd novels, cult author Carlton Mellick III returns with a tale of childhood love and spontaneous face explosions. Ethan is in love with the weird girl in school. The one with the twitchy eyes and spiders in...

Set in the Star Trek universe, this Hidden Universe travel guide explores all that Vulcan--Spock's home planet--has to offer in an interactive guidebook. Plan your next trip to the planet Vulcan! Find restaurants that serve the best fried sandworms and Vulcan port. Take a...

David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favoritesas the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters ("Us and...

Babbitt, first published in 1922, is a novel by Sinclair Lewis. Largely a satire of American culture, society, and behavior, it critiques the vacuity of middle-class American life and its pressure toward conformity. An immediate and controversial bestseller, Babbitt was influential in the decision...

Victor Caro is a counterterrorism officer with the CYA, caught in a world where job security trumps national security. On assignment in West Africa in a post-9/11 world, he is tasked with hunting down the terrorist Omar al-Suqqit, who is looking to launch his...

One of Will Self's best-loved novels, newly reissued by Grove, The Book of Dave begins when East End cabdriver Dave Rudman's wife takes from him his only son. In response, Dave pens a savage jeremiad against the contemporary world that filters his fearful bigotry...

In the words of the late Walker Percy, William Gass is a "totally committed, totally uncompromising, and extraordinarily gifted writer." His latest work is a suite of four novellas that explore Mind, Matter, and God. In the title story, God is a writer in...

Ramchand, a tired shop assistant in Sevak Sari House in Amritsar, spends his days patiently showing yards of fabric to the women of "status families" and to the giggling girls who dream of dressing up in silk but can only afford cotton. When Ramchand...

In this classic satire of small-town America, beautiful young Carol Kennicott comes to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, with dreams of transforming the provincial old town into a place of beauty and culture. But she runs into a wall of bigotry, hypocrisy and complacency. The first...

A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture--now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, and Hugo Weaving After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the...

A smart, fast, funny, and incisive portrait of today's liberal arts college scene, cancel culture, and more. A chance encounter-if it is by chance-gives J. the opportunity of a lifetime. A physician in a midlife funk, he is invited to speak at a small...

Ideas are dangerous . . .James Appleby's career as a social historian is drifting into mediocrity until the phone call that changes his life forever.Appleby uncovers a dangerous secret hidden deep in a chest of 400-year-old documents. To his horror, its discovery ignites a...

Orphaned as a teen, Carol Milford grew up in a city in Minnesota. Already a compassionate person, Carol's time studying in college and grad school exposed her to diverse, radical ideas and lifestyles, which she learned to either accept or tolerate. After college, Carol...

"A brutally funny and observant ride through astrology culture, love, and self-discovery." --NYLON's Most Anticipated Books of 2022"A depressed Millennial astrologist, a self-hating lesbian with a rage (and drinking) problem, and profound questions of connection and destiny make Exalted an unforgettable read. Clear your...

It is a psychological norm for individuals to not empathize with issues that do not affect them. History is often written by those who win in battle or conquer the minds of a population. America and much of this world have had a one-sided...

The Cardiff Giant, set in Cooperstown, New York, has up its novelistic sleeve Puck's profound declaration, "Lord, what fools these mortals be " Jack Thrasher, investigative reporter, arrives on the scene to look into the weird disappearance from the Farmers' Museum of a huge...

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARD - William Melvin Kelley's final work, a Joycean, Rabelaisian romp in which he brings back some of his most memorable characters in a novel of three intertwining stories. "[A] lost giant of American Literature." --The New Yorker Ride...

Eager to leave his humble beginnings, Redmond Barry, runs multiple scams, conning his way into the military and pursuing the fortune of a young widow.For every momentous achievement, he's riddled with a bittersweet result. Redmond Barry is born into a poor Irish family and...

Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published in 1936, is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is Gordon Comstock's romantic ambition to defy worship of the money-god and status, and the dismal life that results....

He fantasizes about saving damsels in distress and battling beasts. He'd better be careful what he wishes for... Will Kirby has hit his mid-life crisis at full speed. Once a rugged outdoorsman, he's now soft around the middle and trapped in the banality of...

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a comic novel written by American author Anita Loos. The story primarily follows the escapades and dalliances of a young blonde flapper in New York City and Europe during the Roaring Twenties....

From the author responsible for the satirical work of genius, A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub is an allegorical work that follows three brothers after the event of their father's death. When their father, who meant to be God, dies,...

With so much apparent alien activity and presence on our planet, what would happen if an American actually took a swing at a UFO and landed a punch? Who in Washington would take that call? What would such a government agency look like? How...

The Flying Inn is set in a future England where the Temperance movement has allowed a bizarre form of "Progressive" Islam to dominate the political and social life of the country. Because of this, alcohol sales to the poor are effectively prohibited, while the...