Sam Lipsyte

From the author of Home Land and Venus Drive comes Sam Lipsyte'ssearing, beautiful, and deeply comic novel, The Ask. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Milo Burke, a development officer at a third-tier university, has "not been developing": after a run-in with a well-connected undergrad, he finds himself among the burgeoning class of the newly unemployed. Grasping after odd jobs to support his wife and child, Milo is offered one...

"One of these is Jack S., a young New Jersey rock musician. Just a few days before his band's biggest gig, their lead singer goes missing with Jack's prized bass, presumably to hock it to feed his junk habit. Jack's search for his buddy uncovers a sinister entanglement of crimes tied to local real estate barons looking to remake New York City, and who might also be connected to the recent death of Jack's punk rock mentor. Along the way, Jack encounters...