Who’s Who When Everyone is Someone Else

C.D. Rose

“Captivating … A book that belongs on the same shelf as Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and Nabokov’s Pale Fire.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Fleeing heartbreak, an unnamed author goes to an unnamed city to give a series of lectures at an unnamed university about forgotten books… only to find himself involved in a mystery when it turns out the professor who invited him is no where to be found, and no one seems quite sure why he’s there.

C. D. ROSE is the author of the satirical book The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure and is an award-wining short story writer whose work has appeared in Gorse, 3AM, and other publications. He currently teaches at the University of Birmingham.

“A clever novel about novels… playful… A witty, guileful novel that underscores the slippery connection between fiction and ‘real’ life.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A riotous, triumphant rattlebag of a novel. C.D. Rose has created an intricate exploration of literary intrigue, suspense and levity — lose yourself in this book at once, and savour every moment.” —Eley Williams, author of Attrib. and Other Stories

“It quenches a thirst you almost forgot you had: endlessly inventive, wickedly intelligent, funny and melancholic. I don’t remember the last time I read something this clever, puzzling and intricate which simultaneously packs so much soul.” —Luke Kennard, author of The Transition

“Wickedly funny, surprisingly accessible, and relentlessly meta, Rose’s novel skillfully sends up modernist literature in delightful fashion. The clever surrounding mystery is icing on the existential cake.” —Booklist

“A thoughtful, funny romp through a mysterious town and literature both real and imagined.” —Shelf Awareness

Praise for The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure:

“Invaluable … Rose writes with wit, playfulness and an impressive knowledge… Rose himself is an author to reckon with, one whom Borges and Max Beerbohm would have admired… We haven’t heard the last of C.D. Rose.” —Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“Nuanced… Mr. Rose is an appealing crank…. Though the vignettes are fictional, most are entertaining and all could serve as warnings to anyone thinking of taking up the literary life.” —Wall Street Journal

“An anthology that cleverly calls out the ways in which we dramatize—and idolize—the lives of authors, successful and not.” —Huffington Post

“This selection may appear to break the rules, but this hilarious ’dictionary’ of literary failures may not be as non-fictional as you think. It helped inspire my new favorite life-negating maxim: fail worse and go out on bottom.”
—Flavorwire, 50 Best Independent Fiction and Poetry Books of 2014

“Humorous, high-toned and absurd… It’s a fun book.”
—Dallas Morning News

“Spend an hour with it…for a bracing, mordant reminder of why almost nothing is really worth bothering with.” —Paris Review, Staff Picks

“A mesmerizing and hilarious little book.” —Flavorwire

“Wonderful… A must read.” —PopMatters

“A big success.” —Daily Beast