New Release Books by William Kotzwinkle

Meet Tommy Martini, the monk with an anger management problem. Since killing somebody with a single punch is not a needed talent in a monastery, he spends his time praying, meditating, and taking his anger management medicine. But his meditations are interrupted by a legacy from his uncle, a crooked priest. Arriving in a New Age Arizona town to claim his inheritance, Brother Tommy meets a charismatic, smoking-hot cult leader who claims that women are being impregnated by alien beings while they sleep. Tommy’s own sleep is disturbed—by cartel hitmen, Mafia bill collectors, and women intrigued by his vow of chastity. He loses his anger management medicine in time to deal with the hitmen, but the women present an uphill battle. William Kotzwinkle’s quicksilver touch has produced an effervescent piece of entertainment filled with suspense, turns you won’t see coming, and the humor for which he is famous.

A quick-witted insect sleuth, patterned after Sherlock Holmes, displays his brilliant powers of deduction in solving five mysteries.

Inspector Mantis and Dr. Hopper exercise their powers of deduction as they face more deadly foes than ever in these four tales of mystery and murder in Bugland.

"Horse Badorties (Son of the Ginger Man, father of the Dude) rides again...Badorties'' narration of his down-at-the-heels drug-fueled befuddlement in New York City circa 1970." --

In this “psychological mind bender,” a Kafkaesque crisis of identity transports a famous actor from 1980s Hollywood to Nazi Germany (The Washington Post). At forty-five, Hollywood film star David Caspian should be basking in his success. Instead, his career is souring as he stresses over the next generation of actors eager to replace him. Losing himself in waking fantasies, David slips through a crack in time, awakening in the back alleys of Hitler’s Berlin. He is no longer David Caspian. He has become Felix, a ruthless black marketeer. With the Gestapo closing in on him, David races against time—and space—as he fights to take control of Felix before Felix takes control of him. Witty, macabre, and utterly thrilling, The Exile is a mesmerizing novel that will leave readers wondering where reality ends and fiction begins. People wrote that when William Kotzwinkle “is the author, readers can be sure only that the book in question will be different from everything else.” But even among the award-winning author’s work, this bracing satire stands out for the sweep of its vision, full of “comedy, despair, horror and technical storytelling delight” (The New York Times Book Review). “The book becomes glued to the reader’s hands as the devastating climactic scenes pile one on another. . . . Powerful writing.” —The Washington Post Book World

From the award-winning legend of speculative fiction, “a witty sendup of the detective story” with “a richness of invention that doffs a hat to Dickens” (Chicago Tribune). At a fashionable salon, Parisians line up to have their fortunes told by Ric Lazare’s amazing machine. The predictions arrive with unerring accuracy, as if the invention were imbued with some sort of wondrous sorcery. The police, however, have a different opinion. They suspect that Lazare is a con man. Accordingly, they’ve sent one of their own to investigate. Unfortunately, the man they send is Paul Picard. His methods are unconventional. His appetites—for lemon tarts, and for prostitutes—are legendary. And he is no stranger to the dark side of Paris. But Inspector Picard is entirely unprepared for the string of murders that pulls him across the continent. As the killer’s seductive knot tightens around him, he learns once and for all that there’s more to the glimmering world of high society than first appears. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for his novel Doctor Rat, William Kotzwinkle reaffirms his reputation as one of the most captivating and original American authors of the last half-century with this “elegant entertainment” of magic and mystery in Paris (The Washington Post). “Gaudy, decadent, smoothly polished, this beguiling novel is . . . a feat of stage magic, well rehearsed and well performed by a fine craftsman.” —The New Yorker “Alternately dark and glittering . . . a first-rate vaudeville turn.” —Chicago Tribune “Pure magic.” —Playboy

This World Fantasy Award winner in the vein of Animal Farm delves into a lab worthy of a mad Nazi scientist—but run by a brilliantly sadistic rodent. In the annals of American literature, there has never been a character quite like Doctor Rat, PhD. From one of the most indispensable storytellers in speculative fiction, this biting satire introduces a narrator of learned charm and humor, and a twisted logic that is absolutely chilling. Doctor Rat is a credit to his species. A survivor of the most refined scientific experiments, now removed from the maze, he has become a valued and productive member of the academic community. When he must administer a lethal dose, he comforts his fellow rats with his compassionate slogan: “Death is freedom.” But everything changes when animals worldwide begin to rebel, refusing to accept their proper places in the natural order of things: as test subjects, pets, or food. And only Doctor Rat has the courage to defend mankind from the ungrateful animal kingdom. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “dazzlingly original” and “occasionally quite beautiful,” Doctor Rat is a sly and stylish indictment of fanaticism in mice and men. “A truly imaginative impresario . . . [Doctor Rat] teases your conscience with educated wit and versatile improvisation, not to mention the casual flick of the tail about to be cut off.” —Kirkus Reviews

Once upon a time in rural Maine, a big black bear found a briefcase under a tree. Hoping for food, he dragged it into the woods, only to find that all it held was the manuscript of a novel. He couldn’t eat it, but he did read it, and decided it wasn’t bad. Borrowing some clothes from a local store, and the name Hal Jam from the labels of his favorite foods he headed to New York to seek his fortune in the literary world. Then he took America by storm. The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a riotous, magical romp with the buoyant Hal Jam as he leaves the quiet, nurturing world of nature for the glittering, moneyed world of man. With a pitch-perfect comic voice and an eye for social satire to rival Swift or Wolfe, bestselling author William Kotzwinkle limns Hal’s hilarious journey to New York, Los Angeles, and the great sprawling country in between, where a bear makes good despite his animal instincts, and where money-hungry executives see not a hairy beast with a purloined novel, but a rough-hewn, soulful, media-perfect nature guy who just might be the next Hemingway. By turns sidesplittingly funny, stingingly ironic, and unexpectedly tender, The Bear Went Over the Mountain captures the zeitgeist of the 1990s dead-on, in a delicious bedtime story for grown-ups.

First published in Redbook in 1975 to enormous acclaim, this O. Henry Award winner sold 100,000 copies in paperback. Available for the first time in hardcover, Swimmer in the Secret Sea is the poignant story of how a man and a woman endured the shock and anguish of their newborn baby''s death.

Deep in the bowels of Junk Moon, the finest scientists of Planet Immortal are nearing completion of Project Amphora, which aims to unlock the secret of immortality. The Project is run by the Consortium, twelve of the planet''s most influential movers and shakers, but they aren''t the only ones after immortality. Commander Jockey Oldcastle, a wise-cracking space pirate, has heard about the Amphora Project from a banished scientist who is convinced it will lead to the end of the world. Oldcastle sets off to find the project with Adrian Link, a timid botanist who wants only to tend to his plants on the Agricultural Plain, yet Oldcastle finds himself trying to unravel a strange mystery: It seems the Amphora Project is turning the citizens of Planet Immortal into crystal. As time runs out, it is up to Oldcastle and Link— and Link''s exotic, unlikely love interest —to stop their mysterious extradimensional enemy before their world is lost forever. Hilarious, wildly inventive, and featuring a fantastical cast of mutants, quasihuman robots, intergalactic mercenaries, and two-thousand-year-old immortals, The Amphora Project is a novel that combines elements of science fiction and fantasy and transcends the boundaries of both.

Millons of people know and love the story of E.T. the little visitor from the stars. Earth is interesting for E.T. but he wants to go home. Can his new Earth friend, Elliott, help him? This is the famous story of one of the world''s favorite movies.

Explains how the legend of Crazy Horse led Korczak Ziolkowski to create a twenty-two story statue of the Native American visionary in the hills of South Dakota.

From morning to bedtime, this delightful poem follows a day in the life of a child. The world of adults seems very big but his imagination brings the everyday objects around him playfully to life. Joe Servello''s illustrations perfectly depict the wonder that children bring to the most ordinary objects. Full color.

Everyone''s smelly dog is off on another adventure, this time holidaying at the beach with the family. When his smelliness can no longer be tolerated by other holidaymakers, he is banned from the beach. Walter consoles himself with some uncooked tropical fruit... Gasses start to build. Then the family become marooned on an island... Can Walter save the day?

When an expert on animal gas tries to cure Walter, his farts keep building up until he floats away and is blown by the wind to a distant place, where he once again proves himself a hero.

While investigating the murder of an antiques dealer killed while playing an ancient Egyptian game, detective Jimmy McShane discovers that someone is playing the same deadly game with him, using Manhattan as the gameboard.

After escaping from the vault in a millionaire''s home, a very valuable old teddy bear finds happiness with a family who knows his true worth.

When Professor Kompressor attempts to cure Walter of his evil farting tendencies, the plan backfires. Instead of beign fart-free, Walter simply fills up with wind but he eventually floats high into the sky. He floats high above the world and knows the only way to come down is to fart but he''s got severely trapped wind. Eventually he meets millions of butterflies who have been blown off course and are in danger of dying unless they can be blown back on course. Walter does come to the rescue, saving the butterflies and floating back to earth where he''s picked up by a watchful park ranger. Everyone''s delighted when he''s reunited with his family - not least of all the deliverymen who''ve been suffering Walter''s wind halfway across the country!

When Walter the Farting Dog is sold for a measly ten pounds, Billy and Betty are distraught. But Walter doesn''t realise he''s been caught up in a dreadful plan involving a fake clown, litres of his unique farts and a bank robbery. Only Walter could be relied on to fart his way out of danger as wll as solving a bank robbery and becoming the town''s hero - even if a bit of a stinky one!

A young boy befriends an extraterrestrial being and together the two embark on a series of earthly adventures until it is time for E.T. to return to his home.

This collection of stories by the author of "Seduction in Berlin" presents a diverse gallery of characters, including a man who has actually held the earth in his hands, a messenger traversing a battlefield ruled by a dying god, and the tormented artist Correggio