THE LAST ILLUSION

Based on a legend from the medieval Persian epic Book of Kings, a kaleidoscopic fabulist novel about a feral boy coming of age in New York as the city hurtles toward 9/11

In a tiny village in rural Iran, Zal's demented mother becomes convinced her baby is evil. She puts him in a wire birdcage with the rest of her caged flock, and there he stays for the next ten years: eating birdseed and insects, squawking and shrieking like the other birds. He is rescued from that hell and adopted by a behavioral analyst who brings him to New York and sets out to help him find happiness. Zal is emotionally stunted, asexual, unfit, and trying desperately to be human as he stumbles through adolescence. His desire to be normal grows as he ages, but like the rest of New York, he is on a collision course with tragedy. A wild, operatic, and startling homage to New York and its most harrowing catastrophe.

Porochista Khakpour's debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times "Editors' Choice," one of Chicago Tribune "Fall's Best," and a 2007 California Book Award winner. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and Salon, among others. She has taught at Johns Hopkins, Hofstra, Bucknell, Fairfield, Fordham, Columbia, and Wesleyan. THE LAST ILLUSION is hailed as one of the most anticipated books of 2014 by Flavorwire, The Millions and The Huffington Post.