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    About the Author: A Novel
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    About the Author: A Novel
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    About the Author: A Novel
    Ebook392 pages5 hours

    About the Author: A Novel

    By John Colapinto

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    From the author of the New York Times bestseller As Nature Made Him comes a “clever and entertaining first novel.”—Elle

    Despite a severe case of writer's block, Cal Cunningham dreams of writing a novel that will permit him to escape from his life as a penniless stockboy in dirty and dangerous upper Manhattan bookstore. However, when his roommate is suddenly killed in a bicycle accident, Cal is suddenly the author of a page-turning autobiography. Propelled to the top of the bestseller lists with million-dollar movie deals, Cal finds that he has realized his most outlandish fantasies of literary success. That is, until he discovers that someone knows his secret.

    A searingly funny psychological thriller, About the Author delves into the excesses of the publishing world and shows that sometimes the difference between reality and imagination can be fatal.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061738616
    Unavailable
    About the Author: A Novel
    Author

    John Colapinto

    John Colapinto is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller As Nature Made Him. He lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for About the Author

    4/5

    10 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Cal Cunningham is a typical aspiring author in New York City: arrogant, lazy, who would rather do anything but write. So it’s all the more galling when his reclusive, dorky roommate, Stewart, turns out to have written a brilliant novel. Then Stewart is suddenly killed, and Cal seizes the opportunity to become the novelist he always thought he should be.He doesn’t just steal Stewart’s novel, but also his life, when he begins dating and eventually marries the love of Stewart’s life. Of course, there is always the danger that someone knows the truth, and when she comes forward, the story really gets going.This is a fun book that possibly could have been a lot more. As we watch Cal’s lies unravel, as pathetic as he is, the reader still feels like calling out advice to him from the wings. The plot gets more and more tortured, though, and I had to wonder if the author had written himself into a situation he couldn’t gracefully get himself out of.
    • 3/5
      Two young men are roommates,one is studying law and the other is attempting to write his first novel without much success. The law student suddenly announces to the other man that he wants him to read a sample of his own writing. This turns out to be first-class and this is where the trouble begins,as the law student is a far better writer than the would-be author. Plagiarism,blackmail and murder follow in quick succession. This is admittedly a story with some clever twists to it. It is also one which I found difficult to finish,although I did after a struggle. Hardly any of the characters were sympathetic and none held my interest for long and there were just too many coincidences here to ring true.
    • 5/5
      When his law student roommate is killed in an accident, struggling author Cal Cunningham finds the novel Stewart was working on and decides to pass it off as his own.A quick, captivating read that pulls you right into the story. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      This was a great find and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading it. Not only was it an easy read but it flowed and I found the pages flying by. I was expecting a thriller but it was quite a gentle thriller that built up over time. First person narrative is sometimes hard to focus on, it all depends on the style of narration but because I didn’t feel as a reader we were meant to warm to Cal Cunningham; I felt it was a good choice in a Bret Easton Ellis sort of way. The story is about Cal, who is a penniless bookstore clerk in Manhattan. Having dreamt about writing his own book it looks like the chance to be in print has landed in his lap. His flatmate of two years, Stuart, has died in an accident and also had his own literary aspirations. What will Cal do with what he finds? Cal’s decision leads him into a rollercoaster ride of deceit and blackmail. It’s a superb fiction debut, culminating in an interesting turn of events. The characters are well-written resulting in being able to visualise with them. There is one part in the novel that I found frustrating and it is a journey taken on the river. I could see its place but it just didn’t seem as well thought out as the rest of the novel. Having said this, he is still an author I’d happily recommend for his fiction.
    • 4/5
      Interesting plot - well written, kept my attention. Some gratuious violence at the end, I would have preferred it to have stayed away from the prerequisite American slide into gore and bodily harm ... otherwise, very good.
    • 3/5
      This is a pretty straight forward story that I enjoyed immensely. Nothing fancy and an easy read. If you have ever thought of putting pen to paper yourself, you'll enjoy this book. Colapinto does a good job of pulling you along as you're waiting for the "other shoe to drop". A bit "formula" towards at the end, but a tense ride getting there.
    • 4/5
      Colapinto’s (author of As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl) venture into suspense and crime is a noteworthy accomplishment. This novel kept me turning pages and each time I put it down it called back to me. The novel begins with Cal Cunningham, a writer who struggles with writer’s block. When his roommate is killed, he discovers in his possessions a manuscript which has not been submitted. Cunningham decides to steal the manuscript for his own and submit it to a leading publishing house. Therein begins a series of events which keep the reader glued to the page. When the novel becomes a huge success, Cunningham is then led to the original author’s girlfriend, whom he eventually marries, and thus adds to the spiral of fast moving deceits and betrayals which can only lead to disaster. This is a great suspense novel, well paced and charted with characters you really care about. Highly recommended for the mystery reader.