Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

HEART OF JUNK

Luke Geddes

A hilarious debut about an eclectic group of merchants at a Kansas antique mall who become implicated in the kidnapping of a local beauty pageant star.

The city of Wichita, Kansas, is wracked with panic over the abduction of toddler pageant princess Lindy Bobo. However, the dealers at The Heart of America Antique Mall are too preoccupied by their own neurotic compulsions to take much notice. Postcards, perfume bottles, Barbies, vinyl records, kitschy neon beer signsthey collect and sell it all.

Rather than focus on Lindy, this colorful cast of characters is consumed by another drama: the impending arrival of Mark and Grant from the famed antiques television show Pickin' Fortunes, who are planning to film an episode at The Heart of America and secretly may be the last best hope of saving the mall from bankruptcy. Yet the mall and the missing beauty queen have more to do with each other than these vendors might think, and before long, the group sets in motion a series of events that lead to surprising revelations about Lindy's whereabouts. As the mall becomes implicated in her disappearance, will Mark and Grant be scared away from all of the drama or will they arrive to save The Heart of America from going under?

Equally comical and suspenseful, Heart of Junk is also a biting commentary on our current fixation of stuff or junk that takes over our lives.

Available products
Book Published 2020-01-21 by Simon & Schuster

Comments

Fox 21 has optioned the book for a series

This is a sharp and wicked novel, astute in its exploration of the collector's psyche and the value - both emotional and monetary - of American junk. Luke Geddes puts all of damaged humanity inside a Midwestern antiques mall, and he documents the escalating drama with savage affection.

[A] rambunctious, oddly touching debut... [Geddes] offers even his most misguided characters the opportunity to bumble towards redemption. This one's a quirky treat for fans of flyover state humor.

Luke Geddes is a master of humor. Heart of Junk deftly explores the loneliness of the human condition through a dazzling spectrum of characters. You will laugh 'til you cry, and cry 'til you laugh. This book is an instant cult classic. Meet your new favorite author.

Hilarious and poignant, inviting belly laughs and thoughtful, genuinely moving introspection on how what we collect comes to define us.

Luke Geddes slyly transforms our material obsessions into a very funny and surprising page-turner of a novel. I loved getting to know this nutty group of hapless citizens, made possible by Geddes's shrewd and pitch-perfect writing.

Geddes's debut is a surreal, hilarious, but humane reckoning with America today: its consumerism, its culture, its nostalgia, its crap. A must-read for the hoarder in us all.

Luke Geddes has written something truly wonderful with Heart of Junk. His tender portrayal of each uniquely strange character who inhabits the Heart of America Antique Mall is strengthened by such perfect comedic timing. As Geddes digs deeper and deeper into a world most people would ignore, he finds real treasure, something beautiful and life-affirming.