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This October, we showcase the brilliant Thomas Pynchon and his much-awaited, newest novel, which is releasing on October 7! AND the second book in the October book box will be one by the 2025 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Book 1: Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

From Penguin:

Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

Praise for Pynchon

“The greatest, wildest, most infuriating author of his generation”
— Ian Rankin

“Thomas Pynchon is no sentimentalist, however, and the balance between light and dark is expertly held throughout this novel”
— Salman Rushdie on Vineland

“The method is sublime. It allows for the surveyors’ story to become an investigation into the order of the universe, clockwork deity and all, and yet at the same time to reflect the inadequacy of reason alone to explain the mystery that surrounds us.”
— T.C. Boyle on Mason & Dixon

Book 2: 2025 winner of the Nobel Prize

The Nobel winner will be announced on October 9, the October Book Boxes will be shipped in mid-October.

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