A DISORDER PECULIAR TO THE COUNTRY

A gripping black comedy about the dissolution of a marriage during a time of confusion and fear in America.

Terrorism, anthrax, the stock market collapse, and war _ are we having fun yet? Marshall and Joyce Harriman aren't. The couple is bitterly attempting to divorce and destroy each other while sharing the same cramped Brooklyn apartment. A small glimmer of hope appears one late summer morning. Marshall goes to work in the World Trade Center; Joyce has booked a flight out of Newark. On that grim day, when their city is overcome by grief and shock, each thinks the other is dead and each is visited by an intense, secret, satanically guilty satisfaction. Both manage to survive, though, only to continue their struggle against one another, a virtual clash of civilizations, while every other weird public misfortune of our nation's recent history indirectly involves them as well.

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country is a brilliant, withering satire of American life during the tumultuous years of the Bush administration, firmly establishing Ken Kalfus as one of the most daring and talented writers at work today.

Ken Kalfus is the author of a novel, The Commissariat of Enlightenment, and the story collections Thirst and Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies. He lives in Philadelphia.