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Start giftingMan in the Empty Suit
Say you're a time traveler and you've already toured the entirety of human history. After a while, the outside world might lose a little of its luster. That's why this time traveler celebrates his birthday partying with himself. Every year, he travels to an abandoned hotel in New York City in 2071, the hundredth anniversary of his birth, and drinks twelve-year-old Scotch (lots of it) with all the other versions of who he has been and who he will be. Sure, the party is the same year after year, but at least it's one party where he can really, well, be himself.
The year he turns thirty-nine, though, the party takes a stressful turn for the worse. Before he even makes it into the grand ballroom for a drink he encounters the body of his forty-year-old self, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. As the older versions of himself at the party point out, the onus is on him to figure out what went wrongāhe has one year to stop himself from being murdered, or they're all goners. As he follows clues that he may or may not have willingly left for himself, he discovers rampant paranoia and suspicion among his younger selves, and a frightening conspiracy among the elders. Most complicated of all is a haunting woman possibly named Lily who turns up at the party this year, the first person besides himself he's ever seen at the party.
For the first time, he has something to lose. Here's hoping he can save some version of his own life.
Sean Ferrellās fiction has appeared in literary journals such as theĀ Adirondack Review and his short story āBuilding an Elephantā wonĀ the Fulton Prize. His debut novel,Ā Numb, was described as āeye catching,ā ādaring,ā and āoffbeat.ā He lives and works, in no particular order, in New York City.
Mauro Hantman has been a resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has appeared in over fifty productions since 1999. He's the artistic director of the Providence Improv Fest and a founding member of Improv Jones, an improv troupe formed in 1992.
Reviews
āAn arresting setupāthe same character is simultaneously the murder victim, suspect, and investigatorāand Ferrell exploits it carefullyā¦[presenting] the reader with some ugly truths about life and owning up to who we really are. Ferrell himself has jokingly called it the time-travel book of 3102, but I wouldnāt suggest waiting that long.ā
āOut of this intriguing premise Sean Ferrell proceeds to spin a dark hybrid of Paul Auster and the film Memento, complete with a mysterious love interestā¦Best of all, however, is the evocation of mid-twenty-first century New York as a melancholy, dilapidated place high in entropy, cluttered with ruined buildings, and weirdly infested with parrots.ā
āFerrellās novel satisfies as both a tale of a four-dimensional conspiracy and as a stark meditation on solitude.ā
ā[Man in the Empty Suit has] an ingenious setupā¦both Looper and Man in the Empty Suit track the trajectory of a pained, lonely man who learns what it means to sacrifice for the sake of anotherās well-being.ā
āMan in the Empty Suit has a clever enough premise that it could be straight out of a Philip K. Dick or Kurt Vonnegut novel.ā
āA genre-bending read that's part noir and part sci-fiā¦[A] speedy story.ā
āThis is trippy book; a great readā¦Ferrell spins a web of lies, deceit, and self-loathing, sprinkles it with intelligent humor and wit, a dash of love and loss, and presents it to the reader on a silver platter.ā
āFerrell has written a brain-teasing, paradox-defying, time travel mystery in the tradition of such pretzel-bending-logic classics as Fritz Leiberās The Big Time and Robert A. Heinleinās āBy His Bootstraps.āā
āFull of imagination and head-scratching conundrumsā¦It should definitely appeal to those who enjoy offbeat [sci-fi] and mystery fiction.ā
āEngaging and thought-provokingā¦It will also appeal to readers of Stephen Kingās 11/22/63.ā
āNarrator Mauro Hantman recounts this offbeat, paradoxical saga with convincing, amusing, and disturbing portrayals of the nameless protagonistās many selves. Itās particularly amusing to hear Hantmanās delivery of his younger and elder selves criticizing each other. The verbal contrast he provides for the protagonist and grumpy, alcoholic Phil, who become friends, is striking. An uncommon plot and unconventional writing make audio the perfect vehicle for sample this oddball adventureāa treat for those who like mind-bending fiction.ā
āA tour de force. Ferrellās skill in plotting is matched only by his ability to bring fully formed characters to life. A moving and brilliantly executed puzzle of a novel.ā
āFerrellās humor and invention will draw you in, and the real emotion in his writing will keep you reading. A clever premise that deepens into a surprising and moving story about fate, identity, and how we shape our own lives and the lives of those around us.ā
āExceptionalā¦for any sci-fi fan who enjoys a challenge.ā
āEnter a mysterious woman with parrot tattoos, a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, Vonnegut-sharp humor, and Hemingway-spare prose, and youāve got some seriously good sci-fi.ā
āMan in the Empty Suit is a rich, complex novelā¦A slightly sinister, brooding tale of death and lost love.ā
āZips along in a smirking way.ā
āA cerebral, noirish, and very unusual novelā¦A challenge for me to put down. This one made me think about it long after I was finished.ā
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