WENDY DUNILAVY is desperately trying to hold her family together. But with her politician husband in prison for corruption and her son. Dylan, the former child actor, running unsupervised through the orderly avenues of northwest Washington, she may not have enough muscle for the task. And that's before the first sighting of the mysterious Chagwa, a famished and unruly menace that not only breaks up the all-important Beltway soirees but also seems to have intentions toward Dylan. Life might be easier if she weren't addicted to sedatives like the rest of the frightened population. Life might be easier if it weren't always a diet of misery, hilarity, longing and surprise in a nation of hucksters, self-deluding lobbyists and pundits. Known for her haunting and inventive story telling (Harper's Bazaar), her laugh-out-loud repartee, and her surreal transfigurations of the commonplace, Julia Slavin has unleashed a hilarious and disturbing tale where the reach of fantasy is as long as the arm of the federal government.

"The surreal invades the quotidian with results both horrific and hilarious in Slavin's first novel, after her well-received collection, The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club. The Dunleavys have had it rough of late: congressman Matt is incarcerated; wife Wendy is addicted to sedatives; teenage son Dylan has just been fired as the voice of a cartoon rodent on a wildly popular TV show; and a chagwa, a terrifying beast long presumed merely mythical, is hanging around their lawn looking mighty hungry. This extravaganza of satire, razor-blade wit and wild imagination lambastes everything from the new ber-reality TV shows (the folks on Colonial World are dying of malaria and flu) to the prevalence of mood-altering prescription drugs (before being forced into rehab, Wendy joneses for Solisan, Nirvanidan and Oblivan) to the absurdity of the U.S. government (which shuts down for ridiculous holidays and boasts congressmen like a lady-killer senator and a malevolent old Republican who holds a funeral for his amputated leg). Amid all this, the chagwa terrorizes D.C. and its environs, killing people and pets — but always circling back for Dylan, whom it cornered once but didn't kill. Relentlessly weird but also surprisingly moving, Slavin's novel should please any reader ready for a break from the familiar. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

With this story of a politician's wife who is desperately trying to hold her family together, Slavin has unleashed a hilarious and disturbing tale where the reach of fantasy is as long as the arm of the federal government. "Haunting and inventive."--"Harper's Bazaar."