Crooked

Award-winning novelist Austin Grossman reimagines the Cold War as an epic battle against the occult waged by the ultimate American antihero: Richard Nixon.

NPR"A cantering hodgepodge of American history, black magic and political satire . . . Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Washington-style."

"Grossman out-nuts the nut-jobs with a premise that's as outlandish as it is superbly conceived. . . . Crooked isn't simply a work of simple satire or wonky alt-history; it's a speculative character study that taps into truths about Nixon that may be more essential than literal. That is, when they're not deliciously absurd."

Los Angeles Times"Crooked confirms and details the extremely esoteric and occult presence we always suspected lay at the heart of the Nixon administration. It's got spies, and political intrigue, and a sitting President spilling his own blood onto a pentagram hidden beneath the Oval Office rug, which is to say there are few of my buttons this book does not push."

“Clever . . . Nuanced, funny and moving . . . In Crooked, [Grossman] riffs on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos in all its eldritch glory and creates an antihero as tormented as any Marvel or DC villain: Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States."

Library Journal (starred review)"Audacious . . . Grossman has done a fine job of combining history, thriller, and weird tale."

“Ingenious . . . This novel works as gleeful satire, as wacky alternate history, and as thriller, but what really shines is the character study at its center. . . . Grossman succeeds in making his fantastic explanation seem more believable than the truth."

About the Author

Austin Grossman is a video game design consultant and the author of You and Soon I Will Be Invincible, which was nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. His writing has appeared in Granta, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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