Absurdist Humor

“A propulsive, madcap story” (The New York Times) about a salaryman who decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper after a botched suicide attempt. "An outstanding writer not only of Japan, but of the world." —The Atlantic After salaryman Hanio...

Winner of the Locus Award and CIBA Mark Twain grand prize, The Man Who Saw Seconds is a gripping speculative fiction thriller, blending absurdist satire and adrenaline-charged suspense, about a New York man who can see five seconds into the future—which changes his life forever; perfect for...

Mr. Quark is a down-on-his-luck pot smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Columbia with his dog, High Pockets, and a small band of banditos led by the irascible José. Times are lean, and to liven up their exile, José decides to mug a family of American tourists. Among the spoils are physics texts, which launch Mr. Quark on a sidesplitting, boisterous adventure north to California, where he confronts the owner of the books with his own theories.

The universe has a complaints department. Unfortunately, it’s still processing yours If you enjoy absurd sci-fi, dry wit, and bureaucratic nightmares that somehow feel a little too real… welcome to the worst office in existence. Arthur Denton is just a human clerk trying to survive his shift at the galaxy’s most dreaded institution: The Department of Interspecies Complaints. His job? Process 47,000 grievances from aliens, planets, concepts, and occasionally reality itself—before the universe collapses under the weight of unresolved paperwork. No pressure. Inside this hilariously ...

The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years—except Biff, the Messiah’s best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in...

From “weird, scary, ingenious” (The New York Times) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, an instant New York Times bestselling, brutally honest, and “laugh-out-loud funny” (Jennette McCurdy, #1 New York Times bestselling author) memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of...

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence...

Richard Brautigan's world is one of gentle magic and marvelous laughter, of the incredibly beautiful and the beautifully incredible. Trout Fishing in America is a pseudonym for the miraculous. A journey that begins at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco's Washington Square, that wanders through the wonders of America's rural waterways, and that ends, inevitably, with mayonnaise. Funny, wild, and sweet, Trout Fishing in America is an incomparable guidebook to the delights of exploration.

What's next for Allan Karlsson? Turns out this centenarian has a few more adventures in store . . . It all begins with a hot air balloon trip and three bottles of champagne. Allan and Julius are ready for some spectacular views, but they’re not expecting to land in the sea and be rescued by a...

Obsessed by what they are certain is the impending apocalypse, a mismatched trio set off on a globetrotting road-trip in the latest feel-good adventure from the internationally bestselling author of The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. In the fading days of...

Told with biting humor, brutal honesty, and moments of absurd laughter, Why Is My Bra Still On? is a darkly comedic, deeply emotional novel about friendship, loyalty, and what it really means to be family.

Marine biologist Nate Quinn is in love with the majestic ocean-dwelling behemoths who have been singing their haunting song for twenty million years. But why do the humpback whales sing? That's the question that has Nate and his crew filming, charting, and recording every whale that crosses...

Soon to be an HBO Max series starring Ray Romano and Cristin Milioti NAMED A RECOMMENDED READ BY GQ PopSugar NPR Huffington Post Electric Literature The New Yorker Publishers Weekly New York Magazine Buzzfeed Refinery29 Vulture Nylon From one of our...

“Darkly funny, surprisingly tender . . . witheringly dead-on.” — Los Angeles Times Named one of the year’s best novels by: Time Salon.com Los Angeles Times NPR/Fresh Air New West Kansas City Star St. Louis Post-Dispatch A comic and heartfelt novel from the #1 New...

A wildly original novel from a rising star of Korean literature—surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite. From an author never before published in the United States, Cursed Bunny is unique...

Lovable serial killer Serge Storms is back and coming to the rescue of a Midwestern couple who aren't finding Florida quite as charming as he does in Riptide Ultra-Guide, the sixteenth installment in Tim Dorsey's bestselling series. When newly unemployed Patrick and Barbara McDougal decide a...

Serge A. Storms embarks on a tour to meet his long-lost relatives in this latest madcap entry in the bestselling series from “Florida’s compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny” (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey. Devoted Floridaphile Serge Storms is a lover of history, so he’s decided to...

Somewhere in the documented gaps of American musical history, between Robert Johnson's crossroads and every myth that followed it, there is a man named Howlin' Biscuit. You have not heard of him. That is not your fault. It is, depending on which source you consult, the fault of the institutions that failed to document him, the fires that destroyed his recordings, the Library of Congress memo that ends with a senior archivist going home, or the fundamental impossibility of writing down something that arrives in the body before it arrives in the brain. This book is the attempt anyway. Written...

She’s not a scientist. She’s not a visionary. She’s a tabloid-obsessed file clerk who spends her evenings devouring celebrity gossip and tinkering with discarded appliances. But when she turns two vintage microwaves into a working teleportation device, everything changes. What begins as a bizarre experiment with laundry and late-night TV spirals into corporate conspiracy, shadowy research firms, experimental pills, and a mysterious protocol that no one is supposed to survive. Meanwhile, in a quiet Idaho farming town, potatoes begin beating like human hearts. Pastors argue theology. ...

The "compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny" (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey returns with an insanely entertaining tale in which the inimitable Serge A. Storms sees dead people and investigates a creepy urban myth that may be all too real. Though another devastating hurricane is raking Florida...