A Thousand and One Nights

Description

Funny, fast-paced, and incisive, A Thousand and One Nights captures the performances, large and small, we use to make it through life.
(Harcourt Trade Publisher, first edition)

“Wonderful and incisive…a witty, poignant, wholly worthwhile read.”
— Elizabeth Strout

Elle.com described this debut novel as “an alternately hilarious and poignant look at the unsettled state of one woman trying to make it outside the socially sanctioned college-office-marriage trajectory” in the mid-1990s.

Karla, 22, is thrilled to be hired as an entertainer on a cruise ship, where the rum punch is 80 percent Kool-Aid, the ice sculptures are plastic and her “fake it till you make it” M.O. seems adventuresome.

Karla is less thrilled when her co-worker, Jack, suggests they form a singing duo on land, but by now false enthusiasm has become second nature. They embark on a not-as-glamorous-as-it-should-be career performing in the luxury hotel bars of the Middle East and China. After a thousand and one nights on the road, Karla and Jack find themselves struggling to keep their act—both personal and professional—together.

Praise for A Thousand and One Nights

“Both an off-kilter take on the conventional coming-of-age tale and a sly commentary on the underbelly of celebrity culture, this truly original book is basically uncategorizable—blissfully so.”
— Elle.com

“This is a moving and accomplished first novel.”
— Jim Shepard

“A one-of-a-kind book, fascinating and honest.”
— Joan Silber

“Shrewdly observed.”
— The Boston Globe

“Add [this] title to your must-read list.”
— The Sacramento Bee