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Free Book Friday: Couch by Benjamin Parzybok

JK Evanczuk / Friday, October 16, 2009 View Comments

Welcome to this week’s Free Book Friday, wherein we give you the best titles in indie publishing for the low low price of nothing. Congrats to last week’s winner Brittany for scoring a copy of Cloud & Ashes by Greer Gilman.

COUCH by Benjamin Parzybok

This week, we are giving away a copy of Couch by Benjamin Parzybok. A freak flood evicts three unlikely roommates from their apartment forcing them to get up off the couch . . . and start carrying it. The couch, though, has designs of its own and the roommates—uncertain of their own paths—follow the couch’s will as it leads them out of contemporary Portland and straight to ancient trouble. A once successful computer hacker with girl problems, Thom looks to science to explain the couch; Erik, a bumbling con man, hopes to capitalize on it; and Tree’s curious dreams make him the group’s truest believer. Parzybok creates a world in which the most domestic of objects transports the reader into magical and foreign lands. He offers a welcome antidote to the doom and gloom of the television news, cheering every adult who still hopes to discover adventure lurking in the living room.

Read an excerpt of Couch for free! You can also download the reader’s guide here.

This week’s Free Book Friday is sponsored by Small Beer Press. Gavin Grant and Kelly Link started Small Beer Press in 2000, after putting out a do-it-yourself zine, and working for years in independent bookstores, in order to publish the kind of books they loved handselling. Small Beer Press publishes literary fiction, innovative fantastic fiction, and classic authors whom you just may have missed the first time around. In their catalog, you’ll find first novels, collections both satisfying and surreal, critically acclaimed, award-winning writers, and exciting talents whose names you may never have heard, but whose work you’ll never be able to forget. Joan Aiken, John Crowley, Carol Emshwiller, Angelica Gorodischer, Naomi Mitchinson, and Sean Stewart are among the names on Small Beer Press’ growing list of innovators.

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is comment in the space below or send an email directly to contact@litdrift.com. Make sure to tell us your email address so we can contact you if you win! We also recommend doing any or all of the following: 

  • Downloading Small Beer Press’ podcasts
  • Signing up for Small Beer Press’ mailing list
  • Becoming our friend on Twitter, Facebook, and/or StumbleUpon
  • Tweeting about this week’s giveaway
  • Signing up for our newsletter
  • Sharing a haiku with us in the comments

Winner will be chosen randomly at 12pm on Friday, October 23. The winner must provide his/her mailing address via email within 48 hours, or a new winner will be randomly selected.

Good luck!

Congrats to PAUL KETCHUM for winning this week! Try your luck again with The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum.

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  • Sara Latta

    Please enter me in this week’s book giveaway contest. Just reading the blurb gives me a new respect for my sofa. I mean, Couch.

  • http://www.petelit.com Pete

    Count me in!

  • Stace

    Sounds bizarre . . . and intriguing. I’m in!

  • Stacey

    Sign me up!

  • Paul Ketchum

    I have moved similar couches. The expressions of those cartoon people are entirely appropriate.

  • http://magnelephant.blogspot.com Chris

    I would like a couch. A book named Couch will do, though.

  • Erica

    Sounds like a fun read!

  • http://ohcycling.blogspot.com Rachel

    Sounds awesome!

  • Amanda Starling Gould

    Kudos to you for promoting the dazzling and innovative Small Beer Press. This new title sounds great!

  • http://www.adventurejournalist.com Tee

    Fun! Count me in.

  • http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com Will

    I love Small Beer books too. Please enter me!

  • http://entomologyofabookworm.blogspot.com Kerry

    Count me in!

  • Babs Loyd

    What a divan contest! Please enter me in the Couch/Sofa giveaway. Three cheers for Small Beers.

  • http://goldies-studio.net Kim Franz

    Only thing missing in the couch movings… was the Portland rain!
    Please enter me in the Couch/Sofa giveaway

  • Cait

    I wants it! I wants it!

  • Carol Feiner

    Must be the Simpsons’ couch…

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