First published 1999
Bobbo Druff works as a street commissioner and has developed an unusual habit of chewing coca leaves. His career has peaked and begun its decline, leaving him restless and searching for meaning. What starts as ordinary middle age dissatisfaction quickly spirals into something darker and more complex. Druff begins to see patterns everywhere, connecting random incidents into elaborate conspiracy theories that may exist only in his mind. Every conversation becomes loaded with hidden meaning. Every coincidence points to a larger plot. The city around him transforms from a familiar workplace into a maze of potential threats and secret agendas. Druff constructs an intricate web of suspicion that grows more detailed and convincing with each passing day. The question becomes whether these mysterious forces actually exist or whether his paranoid imagination has taken control of his perception entirely. At its heart, this is a story about a man desperately trying to make his ordinary life feel significant again.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: paranoia, unreliable-narrator
Setting: City
Period: Contemporary
283 pages · Paperback · Dalkey Archive Press