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Published Apr 2016
416 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization - the Regional Office - and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation.
At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.
Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah - who may or may not have a mechanical arm - fiercely devoted to the organization that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother's sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose's and Sarah's stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.
Weaving in a brilliantly conceived mythology, fantastical magical powers, teenage crushes, and kinetic fight scenes, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is a seismically entertaining debut novel about revenge and allegiance and love.
"The novel is not as satisfying as his short stories, and it occasionally feels overextended, but there are moments of brilliance." - Publishers Weekly
"A surprisingly erudite bit of sci-fi that throws in everything but the kitchen sink." - Kirkus
"The Regional Office really IS under attack! This is not metaphor! It is a wry and propulsive work of inventive fiction by a terrific young writer! Read it!" - Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
"Delightfully weird, weirdly delightful! Manuel Gonzales clearly has a labyrinth of a brain - all stuffed with monsters, trapdoors, and complicated heroes. Sign me up as a member of the fan club, please." - Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble and Magic for Beginners
"This book is a winged creation, and absolutely marvelous. Gonzales keeps turning the kaleidoscope to reveal the strangest, darkest, and most beautiful dimensions of human love, and the conversion of mechanical fury into living strength." - Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
"With exuberant prose and a corkscrew plot, Manuel Gonzales vanquishes artistic orthodoxies, tiresome genre boundaries and every humdrum narrative convention in sight, leaving in his wake a riveting story of secrets, betrayals, and vengeance!" - Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus
"Wild, visionary, ablaze with heart and riot, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is unforgettable - an epic love story that confronts our future with a howl and fireworks." - Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters
"Wickedly subversive, suspenseful, and thoughtful, all at once - but most of all, it's just fun to read, from the first sentence to the last. Put down your expectations and pick up this book. It'll hit you like a lightning bolt." - Jess Row, author of Your Face in Mine
"A ridiculously fun story about love, as well as time and timing, both good and bad. And because of that, it's also timely. The ending - with its deft glimpse at a hypothetical future - is alone worth the wild ride." - Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way
This information about The Regional Office is Under Attack! was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Manuel Gonzales is the author of the acclaimed story collection The Miniature Wife, winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. A graduate of the Columbia University Creative Writing Program, he teaches writing at the University of Kentucky. Gonzales has published fiction and nonfiction in Open City, Fence, One Story, Esquire, Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and The Believer. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and two children.
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