Synopses & Reviews
What is Horace Jacob Little trying to hide? No one knows much about the great modern author except that he is a complete recluse. In this electrifying debut novel, three recent college graduates are trying to uncover the mysterious writer's real identity: Jake Burnett, a young reporter and fan who wants to make his reputation by unmasking the legend; Andrew Wallace, a psychologically disturbed genius who is convinced that Little is plotting against him; and Lara Knowles, the girl they both love. Their investigation leads them into a twisted game of reflections and reversals in which each seems to be pursuing the other and the truth becomes blurred. As Andrew becomes increasingly distraught and potentially dangerous, the quest for the author threatens to unhinge everyone involved.
"The Muse Asylum is an ingeniously plotted postmodernist mystery that introduces a young writer of exceptional gifts. David Czuchlewski writes with imagination, vision, and style." (Joyce Carol Oates)
"[A] cleverly devised, sharply composed, entertaining and moving first novel. Mr. Czuchlewski deftly creates vivid environments in quick strokes. . . . And, crucially, he peoples these places with affecting characters, who seem to live on even after his tale's last twist has been turned." (The Wall Street Journal)
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"[B]rilliant....Czuchlewski keeps us guessing throughout an elegantly crafted psychological thriller....A fabulous debut. Look for big things from this new writer. He's the genuine article." Kirkus Reviews
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"The Muse Asylum is this summer's must read for all those who love truly literary thrillers." New Orleans Times-Picayune
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"[A] cleverly devised, sharply composed, entertaining and moving first novel. Mr. Czuchlewski deftly creates vivid environments in quick strokes....And, crucially, he peoples these places with affecting characters, who seem to live on even after his tale's last twist has been turned." The Wall Street Journal
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"The Muse Asylum succeeds in establishing [Czuchlewski] as a new writer to be watched." San Francisco Chronicle
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"[A] daring, self-consciously literary debut....[A] stylish, assured and gripping work of fiction....[W]ell plotted, with nuanced characters and real intellectual heft. Czuchlewski is a writer to watch." Publishers Weekly
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"Simply put, this is a brilliant book, one of the best I've read in many years." Ed Halloran, Rocky Mountain News
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"The Muse Asylum is an ingeniously plotted postmodernist mystery that introduces a young writer of exceptional gifts. David Czuchlewski writes with imagination, vision, and style." Joyce Carol Oates
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"The Muse Asylum is a stylish, psychologically acute, and altogether captivating tale of madness and obsession. A grand debut." Jonathan Kellerman
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"Czuchlewski's prose is perfection. Every line is clean and crisp and...well, for lack of a better word, perfect. The Muse Asylum...is a twisting, turning, whirling dervish of a story. You will barely be able to put it down once you have started." Jana Siciliano, BookReporter.com
Synopsis
"An ingeniously plotted postmodernist mystery. . . . David Czuchlewski writes with imagination, vision, and style."--Joyce Carol Oates
Who is Horace Jacob Little, and what is he trying to hide?
Legend has is that not even his agent had met him, that they communicated via post office box. Horace Jacob Little had insisted on blank covers for all his books. . . . No one knew what he looked like or where he lived. . . . I used to imagine him: a death-row inmate, a mild-mannered accountant, a disfigured cripple. . . .
He was none of these, as it turned out, nothing my imagination could conjure.
Andrew Wallace, recent Princeton graduate and troubled genius, spends his days in the Overlook Psychiatric Institute--the Muse Asylum--writing about a dark conspiracy against him engineered by the elusive author Horace Jacob Little. When fellow classmate Jake Burnett, a novice reporter, arrives on the hospital grounds to visit Andrew, he learns that Andrew's problems run much deeper than simple paranoia and obsession.
Along with Lara Knowles, the girl they both love, they try to break through the shadows of the enigmatic Horace Jacob Little. Instead, they find themselves caught in a twisted game of reflections and reversals, where each seems to be pursuing the other--for love, for success, or for a far more sinister purpose.
" A] cleverly devised, sharply composed, entertaining and moving novel."--The Wall Street Journal
Synopsis
In this breath-snatching first novel of love, madness and artistic identity, a young genius's obsession with a reclusive writer consumes those around him, as they begin to learn the dark truths that lurk beneath the surface of the relationship.
Synopsis
What is Horace Jacob Little trying to hide? No one knows much about the great modern author except that he is a complete recluse. In this electrifying debut novel, three recent college graduates are trying to uncover the mysterious writer's real identity: Jake Burnett, a young reporter and fan who wants to make his reputation by unmasking the legend; Andrew Wallace, a psychologically disturbed genius who is convinced that Little is plotting against him; and Lara Knowles, the girl they both love.
Their investigation leads them into a twisted game of reflections and reversals in which each seems to be pursuing the other and the truth becomes blurred. As Andrew becomes increasingly distraught and potentially dangerous, the quest for the author threatens to unhinge everyone involved.
About the Author
David Czuchlewski graduated from Princeton University in 1998. He is currently a resident in the Department of Pathology at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center.