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 Jabraille for getting a free copy of The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel.
This week, we are giving away a copy of The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci. Montreal during the turbulent mid-1980s: Chernobyl has set Geiger counters thrumming across the globe, HIV/AIDS is cutting a deadly swath through the gay population worldwide, and locally, tempers are flaring over the recent codification of French as the official language of Quebec. Hiding out in a seedy apartment near campus, Alex Fratarcangeli (“Don’t worry. . . . I can’t even pronounce it myself”), an awkward, thirty-something grad student, is plagued by the sensation that his entire life is a fraud. Scarred by a distant father and a dangerous relationship with his ex Liz, and consumed by a floundering dissertation linking Darwin’s theory of evolution with the history of human narrative, Alex has come to view love and other human emotions as “evolutionary surplus, haphazard neural responses that nature had latched onto for its own insidious purposes.” When Alex receives a letter from Ingrid, the beautiful woman he knew years ago in Sweden, notifying him of the existence of his five-year-old son, he is gripped by a paralytic terror. Whenever Alex’s thoughts grow darkest, he recalls Desmond, the British professor with dubious credentials whom he met years ago in the Galapagos. Treacherous and despicable, wearing his ignominy like his rumpled jacket, Desmond nonetheless caught Alex in his thrall and led him to some life-altering truths during their weeks exploring Darwin’s islands together. It is only now that Alex can begin to comprehend these unlikely life lessons, and see a glimmer of hope shining through what he had thought was meaninglessness. You can read an excerpt here and watch the related video here.
This week’s Free Book Friday is sponsored by Other Press.
Other Press attracts authors who are guided by a passion to discover the limits of knowledge and imagination. They publish novels, short stories, poetry, and essays from America and around the world that represent literature at its best. Their nonfiction books–should they be history, current events, popular culture or memoir–explore how psychic, cultural, historical, and literary shifts inform our vision of the world and of each other.
To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is comment in the space below. Make sure to tell us your email address so we can contact you if you win! We also recommend doing the following:
- Becoming Other Press’ friend on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace
- Checking out Other Press’ videos on Youtube
- Becoming our friend on Twitter & Facebook
- Signing up for our newsletter
- Writing a couplet about Darwin
Winner will be chosen randomly at 12pm on Friday, May 14 and notified via email. The winner must respond to our email within 48 hours, or a new winner will be randomly selected.
Good luck!
EDIT: Giveaway now closed. Congrats to this week’s winner WILLAMAE. Try your luck again with Jim Munroe and Shannon Gerard’s post-rapture graphic novel, Sword of My Mouth.
