Kafka meets the 21st century in this fascinating debut literary dystopia with not a hint of rebellious adolescents, romance or spectacular battles! The midwestern city of Trude is a portrait of suburbia gone to seed, a convoluted pattern of buildings in ruin, labyrinthine malls, barricaded libraries and care homes. When his wife, an acclaimed mezzo soprano vanishes during rehearsals at the opera house, lowly legal clerk Sven Norberg embarks on a necessary quest into the city's bizarre underworld where he will have to face the treachery of his own son, bizarre critics and a sinister church establishment with secrets to spare. An existential detective story with touches of sly humour and great imagination, this is a little gem of a novel. Don't let it pass you by.
The Facades is one of the most remarkable and talked-about debut novels in recent memory. Set in the once-great Midwestern city of Trude - a treacherous maze of convoluted shopping malls, barricaded libraries and elitist assisted-living homes - Eric Lundgren's novel follows a disconsolate legal clerk named Sven Norberg, who sets out to investigate the disappearance of his wife, the city's most celebrated mezzo-soprano. To track her down, he must descend into Trude's underworld and confront the menacing and bizarre citizens of his hometown: rebellious librarians, shifty music critics and the minister of an apocalyptic church who has recruited Norberg's teenage son. Written with boundless intelligence and razor-sharp wit, The Facades is a comic and existential mystery that unfolds at the urgent pace of a thriller.
' - sprightly, amusing and genuinely intriguing. It's a detective story, but not as we know them. Daily Mail
If there's a cross between Wittgenstein and a beach read, this is it - and yes, it's as fun and strange as that sounds' BookRiot
Author
About Eric Lundgren
Eric Lundgren grew up in Minneapolis. He studied at Lewis & Clark College and earned his MFA at Washington University, where he was awarded a third-year fellowship. The Facades is his first novel. He works at a public library in St. Louis, where he lives with his wife Eleanor and their two cats.
