Our Napoleon in Rags

From a writer called "an important new voice in fiction"by Bret Lott and a "novelist of daring creativity and passion"by Edmund White, comes Our Napoleon in Rags. It's the story of the regulars at the Don Quixote, a bar in a decaying Midwestern city, whose lives are torn apart when their self-appointed "Napoleon,"Haycraft Keebler, bipolar son of a famous local politician, falls in love with a 15-year-old male hustler. Weaving the hot-button issues of mental illness, pedophilia, racism and police brutality through a novel that is Victorian in its graceful storytelling, Kirby Gann has created not only an extraordinary read, but a biting commentary on contemporary America.

Kirby Gannis the managing editor of Sarabande Books and teaches in the MFA program at Spalding University.

Using racism, police brutality, pedophilia and mental illness, this novel explores the decline of the American Dream.