Abracadabrantesque

Fiction. John M. Keller's mind-spinning, continent-spanning new novel takes off from a term coined by the word- intoxicated poet, Arthur Rimbaud. Its intimations of flying-carpet magic and pierrot lunaire adventure are fully realized in this tale of Americans at large in South American, European and African landscapes. Marcus, our narrator, is a form-athlete-turned-vagabond who finds his way, along with his scandal- raising sister, Connie, to the unlikely refuge of Montevideo. When their quixotic journalist pal, Felip, gets into deep waters in his heedless investigative crusading, Marcus is flushed from his Uruguayan hideaway and exposed to the perils of global intrigue.

"Keller's book, his finest so far, is the most rapturous journey of the senses that the contemporary American novel has to offer. As much a Latino as an Anglo novelist, Keller brings to his writing both the dark flamboyance of the Southern tradition and the nimble wit of the North. ABRACADABRANTESQUE is the most amazing fictional creation of our young century to date. It is one of the great romantic novels, in the tradition ofLove in the Time of Cholera. To miss it would be to miss the literary feast of a lifetime."—Carey Harrison, author of WHO WAS THAT LADY?