Publisher's Synopsis
Arthur Nersesian, writer of the cult classic The Fuck Up, new novel, Shit Show, is a mystery that originates in Moscow during World War Two and is solved on the 93rd floor of the South Towers of the World Trade Center a half a century later before the towers come tumbling down on 9/11.Shit Show, is a mystery that originates in Moscow during World War II and is solved on the 93rd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, half a century later, before the towers come tumbling down on 9/11. The story interweaves an array of characters, from writers and informants from Stalinist Russia in 1943 to moneyed New Yorkers amid the real estate boom of the 1990s. At its center is a riddle of two Soviet writers: a poet who in 1922 vanishes to Siberia to escape persecution and his friend, an Armenian writer who 20 years deliberately erases himself from history.Told through multiple points of view, in short, sharp chapters, this 130,000-word (330-page) novel spans nations and decades and is linked by overlapping characters at various stages of their lives. The central protagonist is an native New York teen, Eric Stein. Over a period of years, through an odd meeting at the Woodstock Music Festival and decades later when he makes a serendipitous error, he finds himself drawn into a fragmented puzzle and ultimately a shocking revelation. The book also investigates such universal notions as faith, loyalty, and forgiveness, as well as contemporary issues, specifically globalization - how the brutal policies of countries can affect the lives of so many others years later. During the second world war, two lovers in the book, a Ukrainian girl and her Russian boyfriend, slowly find their love torn apart by the politics of their two countries - something we see dramatically acted out today in Putin's war today. Some of the reasons I wrote this book is, after visiting Russia in 2007, I couldn't find a novel that suitably addressed the PTSD of post-Stalinist culture, specifically the guilt of writers, artists and musicians who had turned on each other in order to survive. Additionally, Shit Show offers a sharp contrast of two youth cultures: First two young lovers, students in Moscow University enlisted by the NKVD (secret police, later KGB), who frame an older writer in the belief that they are performing a patriotic act. Interlaced with their story are two teens stranded at the original Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, where all is not always peace, love and music.
