Well, it’s finally almost out! It’s been a long road for this book, nearly eight years, from the original short story, titled “The Daily Racing Form,” to its expansion into a 130,000-word novel, and its later reduction to its present, modest 80,000 words. It’s had a few titles, too—The Instant of the Mothers (for a brief period; this was loathed by my agent), to The Misery Ticket (a more literal title), with Misery finally replaced with the more satirical Splendid. I think the best part about this book is the cover. The art is by the estimable Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva, and the design by McSweeney’s sorcerer Sunra Thompson. The cover was inspired by an 1818 painting by Caspar David Friedrich, called “The Wanderer”:
I hope you’ll take a chance on this book! It can be had at purveyors of fine books everywhere, plus Amazon 🙂
Leave a Reply