For Immediate Release
POPULAR PEAK OIL AUTHOR PUBLISHES CHRISTMAS NOVELLA"Long Emergency Author" and "World made By Hand" novelist visits the warm-hearted side of life with "A Christmas Orphan"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (11/22/2010) – Author James Howard Kunstler is best-known for his books and novels warning about peak oil, economic collapse and the failures of suburbia.
But this holiday season he's taking a short break from analyzing the converging catastrophes of the 21st Century to share a Christmas parable with his readers. "A Christmas Orphan," by James Howard Kunstler, is a new novella about a big city boy who runs away from home to small town Vermont on Christmas Eve.
"We all need a time-out from the fiascos of the day," Kunstler said. "Christmas is the perfect theme for reflecting on what's enduringly funny and heart-warming. Also, I don't think Glenn Beck should get to hog all the holiday sales."
Set in the 1960s, "A Christmas Orphan" is the story of 11-year-old Manhattanite Jeff Greenway. When Jeff overhears his parents arguing after his dad's holiday office party, he gets the idea that he was actually an orphan who was placed on his parents' doorstep in a willow basket. Shocked to discover that his parents are "phonies," he runs away to Grand Central Station on Christmas Eve and gets on a train to the small town of Drakesville, Vt. There, he goes from door to door asking people to adopt him.
"When I was a kid growing up in Manhattan, I always longed for a Currier & Ives existence in a small town, where you could fish for bass and ride your bike without getting killed by taxi-cab," Kunstler said. "Instead, I spent my city childhood in museums, with the shrunken heads and stuffed gorillas."
Though Kunstler's acclaimed nonfiction books and novels are published by New York City -based Grove/Atlantic, his newest 76-page novella is the product of a print-on-demand publishing experiment with Chris Morrow, owner of Manchester, Vt.-based Northshire Bookstore.
"My own publisher didn't know what to do with it," Kunstler said of his novella, "and the whole industry is in turmoil. Chris recognized its value and we're blazing the trail for a new publishing model. I think readers will get a huge kick out of it."
Northshire is one of the only independent bookstores in the U.S. to have an Espresso Book Machine on its premises. The machine prints, binds and trims completed books on location.
"A Christmas Orphan" is available for purchase for $10 at Northshire Bookstore, located at 4869 Main Street Manchester Center, Vt., and online at:
http://northshire.com/siteinfo/bookinfo/9780984625208/0/. It will be available at select other bookstores this December.
Kunstler will read from "A Christmas Orphan" at Northshire Bookstore on Friday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
ABOUT JHK
A renowned social commentator, Kunstler lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He is the author of four nonfiction books: "The Geography of Nowhere," "Home from Nowhere," "The City in Mind" and "The Long Emergency." He has written 11 novels and one play. His website is
http://kunstler.com.
For information and high-resolution author photos and book covers for reproduction, visit:
http://duncancrary.com/clients/JamesHowardKunstler.htmlTo schedule an interview with James Howard Kunstler, or to request a review copy of "A Christmas Orphan" contact Duncan Crary at [contact info at
http://DuncanCrary.com]
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