The Bend of the World: A Novel

Mighty strange doings mark the Pittsburgh of Jacob Bacharach’s audacious and hilarious debut novel, a town where yeti, UFOs, rumors of orgiastic rites, intimations of the Mayan apocalypse and ‘psycho-temporal distortions’ add that extra zing to the bustling night life (James Wolcott). On the edge of thirty, and comfortably adrift in life, Peter Morrison finds his personal and professional life taking a turn for the weird as his attempts to transition into adulthood are thwarted by conspiracies both real and imagined. In this madcap coming-of-age novel, where no one quite comes of age, Bacharach brings an immensely entertaining and Vonnegut-like sensibility (Library Journal ) to the aptly surreal satire (Dan Chaon) of hipsters, corporations, and American life in the adolescent years of the twenty-first century. A disarming, intelligent and seriously funny debut, The Bend of the World marks the arrival of Jacob Bacharach as a writer to watch (Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).