From a writer called “an important new voice in fiction†by Bret Lott and a “novelist of daring creativity and passion†by Edmund White, comes Our Napoleon in Rags. It’s the story of the regulars at the Don Quixote, a bar in a decaying Midwestern city, whose lives are torn apart when their self-appointed “Napoleon,†Haycraft Keebler, bipolar son of a famous local politician, falls in love with a 15-year-old male hustler. Weaving the hot-button issues of mental illness, pedophilia, racism and police brutality through a novel that is Victorian in its graceful storytelling, Kirby Gann has created not only an extraordinary read, but a biting commentary on contemporary America.
Kirby Gann is the managing editor of Sarabande Books and teaches in the MFA program at Spalding University.