{"product_id":"like-you-have-a-choice-ivan-niccolai-9798293264926","title":"Like you have a choice","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFeeling well-adjusted? This book will fix that.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWelcome to Melbourne, a city where the coffee is single-origin and the existential dread is locally sourced. In this town of curated lifestyles and performative wellness, a band of charming misfits is doing their best to keep it weird.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere's Igor, who has discovered the only known cure for depression: mainlining the cringe of amateur slam poetry. There's Hector, a man whose biceps are less inflated than his ego, on a sacred quest for a gold pendant. And then there are the rest of them: the corporate zombies, the festival-loving nomads, and the spiritually bankrupt, all flailing beautifully in a sea of organic kombucha and poor life choices.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom a wellness spa that promises to \"unsag everything\" to a Cypriot restaurant where the bathrooms have seen more action than a UN peacekeeping force, \"Like You Have a Choice\" is a riotous tour of the places we go to escape ourselves. With a wit as sharp as a shard of artisanal sourdough, Ivan Niccolai lovingly dissects the anxieties and absurdities of our times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCome for the laughs. Stay for the crushing realisation that you might be one of these people.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Like You Have a Choice\" is a collection of stories for anyone who has ever looked at the modern world and thought, \"Are you kidding me?\" Set in the artisanal hellscape of Melbourne, this book is a field guide to the beautifully broken, the profoundly confused, and the gloriously unhinged. Our tour guides include a menagerie of loveable degenerates: corporate drones who speak exclusively in buzzwords, wellness junkies seeking enlightenment through IV drips, and exiles who can't remember which country they're supposed to be nostalgic for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the centre of this circus is the \"abomination,\" a recurring figure who suspects they might be a human-shaped collection of borrowed mannerisms and a vague sense of dread. Follow these characters as they embark on deeply misguided quests for meaning. Witness Igor, a Russian connoisseur of other people's bad poetry, who gets his kicks from the suffering of slam poets. Meet Hector, a Greek god whose primary life goal is to find a necklace that adequately conveys his sexual availability. The journey detours through a high-end sex club for the emotionally bankrupt, a Zambian missionary compound run by stoned teenagers, and a version of inner-city Melbourne that has been bulldozed and rebuilt by a mysterious Angolan architect with a multi-billion-dollar grudge and a penchant for brutalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLike You Have a Choice\u003c\/b\u003e is a hilarious and horrifying deep-dive into the absurdity of trying to be a person in a world that's politely taken leave of its senses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ivan Niccolai\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798293264926\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/06\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 100\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.24lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.21d","brand":"Ivan Niccolai","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47305775087871,"sku":"9798293264926","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_eb29b66c-bc4f-4f73-9b6b-fd7af4f237de.jpg?v=1758831751","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/like-you-have-a-choice-ivan-niccolai-9798293264926","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}