Selected as a Best Book of 2017 by PANK Magazine
2034: Evangelical secret agents, fast food moguls, the voice of God in computer software, violence in the Bermuda Triangle! George W. Bush’s foreign policy vindicated by a quick victory in Iraq, lucrative invasions of Egypt and Syria followed, bringing unparalleled prosperity to America and setting off thirty years of right-wing rule. But when a war in Iran goes bad—and the resulting cover-up goes worse—the Democrats reclaim the presidency. This is the time of Pax Americana and its zealous anti-hero, government agent Tuck Squires. Reading the ironic silences between the lines of the thriller, and roaring like a jet engine, Pax Americana is a sacrilegious, conspiratorial monster; like a literary dogfight between Ian Fleming and Robert Anton Wilson, loaded with prophecy, Baumeister’s debut is an exorcism and an antidote for our era.
Stalking Horse Press, 2017
“Kurt Baumeister has more fun with language than any novelist since Money-era Martin Amis. I haven’t read such marvelously obsessive prose in years.” — Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Half a Life, Winner National Book Critics Circle Award
“A strange hybrid narrative that weaves together a science fiction drama with a hilarious thriller and sprinkles the mixture with heavy doses of literary fiction, sociopolitical commentary, and satire. The result is an ambitious novel that somehow pulls it all off while demonstrating a level of creativity that can rarely be found in debuts.” — Gabino Iglesias, The Brooklyn Rail
“Hang on tight, because the thriller’s been reinvented, smartened up, and rendered blazingly funny in Kurt Baumeister’s wild, raucous ride of a novel. Spiritual, sly, and so fast-paced you could get whiplash. Truly, Pax Americana is hilarity with heart.” — Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World
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