No Sympathy (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781958121870)

Theo is the kind of guy who'd steal your painkillers and lie to you about it while high. He's the kind of guy who swears he just scored a gig and so he can totally pay you back-rent, don't worry about it. He is an asshole, and our story begins when he alienates the last of his friends in Berlin and is kicked out onto the street. Unbeknownst to him however, this cutting of social ties enables him to tap into a world of sympathetic magic, which he does by accidentally teleporting to China. There, he meets a mentor named Gabriel, who instructs him in the art of sympathy, in the art of seeing things as similar to allow them to become the same. The caveat is that only those who go unnoticed, those without ties, can perform magic. Gabriel brings Theo to an enclave of magicians, who perform global charity work at the margins of society. As he works with them and trains to become a better magician, Theo is forced to confront himself, and to learn the difference between self-hatred and egolessness, with an ultimately tragic conclusion.

One part Neverwhere, one part Bojack Horseman, with more than a dash of Ursula Le Guin, this is a story about the magical thinking within modernity, and the importance of self-compassion in trying to make the world a better place.