A young girl in the Sudan dies, the world keeps turning. The only problem is, this time God happened to be inhabiting the young girl's body at the time of her death. By accepting the simple, if absurd, 'truth' that God is dead the rest of this wonderfully disturbing and darkly humorous novel is made possible. It may be hard to imagine a world where parents worship their children (well with God gone who would you worship?) and teens make group suicide pacts, yet Currie's Godless universe is not such a far cry from our own. This utterly surreal novel is one of the most captivating and provocative works of modern fiction I've encountered.

An electrifying debut from a provocative new voice in fiction that will remind readers of the best of Vonnegut

Ron Currie ’s guts y, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world. God has inhabited the mortal body of a young Dinka woman in the Sudan. When she is killed in the Darfur desert, he dies along with her, and word of his death soon begins to spread. Faced with the hard proof that there is no supreme being in charge, the world is irrevocably transformed, yet remains oddly recognizable.

“ Currie’s strength rests in his ability to focus humanity’s conundrums on the smallest physical particles. The truth he presents is that the world has become absurd; he is merely delivering a steady-cam view.”
—Los Angeles Times

“ [A] cavalierly ambitious debut . . . with talking dogs, text message–happy teenagers, and end-of-day shenanigans. Like Kurt Vonnegut, he seems to understand that in the face of grim and grave concerns, humor is a more powerful salt than screed.”
—John Freeman, San Francisco Chronicle

Ron Currie, Jr.’s prizewinning fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Sun, Other Voices, and Night Train. He has been short- listed for the Fish International Short Story Award and Swink magazine’s Emerging Writer Award.

Imprint: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 05-27-2008
Pages: 192
Measurements: 8.24in X 5.16in X 0.52in X 0.35lb