Even though his firearms store is failing, things are looking up for David Rizzo. His son, Nick, has just recovered after a near-fatal overdose, which means one thing: Rizzo can use Nick's resurrection to create the most compelling television commercial for a gun emporium the world has ever seen. After all, this is America, Rizzo tells himself. Surely anything is possible. But the relationship between father and son is fragile, mired in mutual disappointment. And when the pair embarks on their scheme to avoid bankruptcy, a high-stakes crash of hijinks, hope and disaster ensues.
Featuring a cast of unforgettable characters, this razor-sharp tragicomedy lays bare both the gun and opioid crises. Fans of Don DeLillo and Stephen Markley will be thrilled by this smart, inventive debut.
'What a taut, energetic, tender, and wholly original debut novel Alexander Sammartino has written. He knows something deep about the dark heart of America that somehow doesnt stop him from writing about it with genuine, goofy love.' - George Saunders, author of Liberation Day
'Its hard to believe Last Acts is a first novel. Sammartinos brilliance and originality shine out from every page of this masterful debut.' - Jenny Offill, author of Weather
'A magnificent sentence writer, with a gift for pulling poetry out of an American vernacular that recalls the early work of George Saunders... While many novelists are struggling to figure out how best to address the state of the nation -- centerless, ridiculous and terrifying, doomed yet trivial, dire yet unheroic -- Sammartino seems to have cracked the code' - New York Times Book Review
'Last Acts announces a brilliant new voice. Sammartino is precise, funny and will break your heart all at once. Not to be missed.' - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
'Raucous, irreverent... Last Acts pays tribute to gallows humorists like Sam Lipsyte, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Tropper, and Jonathan Franzen.' - Chicago Review of Books
Alexander Sammartino was born in Rhode Island and grew up in Arizona. He majored in philosophy and English at Syracuse University, which is also where he received his MFA in fiction. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat. Last Acts is his first novel.
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