The Salinger Contract: A Novel

by Adam Langer, Adam Langer (Read by)

Overview

An enthralling literary mystery that connects some of the world's most famous authors —from Norman Mailer and Truman Capote to B. Traven and J. D. Salinger— to a sinister collector in Chicago.

Adam Langer, the narrator of this deft and wide-ranging novel by the author of the same name, tells the intertwining tales of two writers navigating a plot neither one of them could have ever imagined. There may be no other escape than to write their way out of it.

Adam is a writer and stay-at-home dad in Bloomington, Indiana, drawn into an uneasy friendship with the charismatic and bestselling thriller author Conner Joyce. Conner is having trouble writing his next book, and when a menacing stranger approaches him with an odd—and lucrative—proposal, events quickly begin to spiral out of control.

A novel of literary crimes and misdemeanors, The Salinger Contract will delight anyone who loves a fast-paced story told with humor, wit, and intrigue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781531818029
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Born and raised in Chicago, Adam Langer is the author of the novels Crossing California, The Washington Story, Ellington Boulevard, and The Thieves of Manhattan, and the memoir My Father’s Bonus March. His has written about books and authors for such publications as the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post, among others. He has been a frequent radio and TV guest, including appearances on CNN, Fox, and NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The Chicago Public Library recently purchased a significant collection of his papers. He is the former senior editor of Book Magazine and currently serves as the arts and culture editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. Langer lives in New York City with his wife, Beate; his daughters, Nora and Solveig; and their dog, Kazoo. 

Interviews

New York, NY

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2013
This playful literary thriller from Langer (The Thieves of Manhattan) about the imperiled state of writers and books in the 21st century suggests Paul Auster's New York Trilogy with a lighter touch. Narrator Adam Langer's quiet existence as a stay-at-home dad in Bloomington, Ind., is disrupted when thriller author Conner Joyce, whom Adam once profiled in his livelier past life as a journalist in New York City, comes to town on an author tour. Soon after the two renew their friendship, Conner reveals that he's received a bizarre offer. The wealthy, mysterious Dex wants Conner to write a novel for a private collection of unpublished manuscripts from the likes of Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, and, of course, J.D. Salinger. Adam becomes the bestselling author's closest confidant as Conner's involvement with Dex turns dangerous. Langer stumbles with his strained characterization of Conner as an all-around regular guy, but his vision of the publishing world, which ranges from a half-empty Midwestern Borders to a young adult fantasy author who comes on like a foul-mouthed cross between J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, is a wittily spooky creation. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013  

“Skewers pretensions of writers and writing, editors and publishers—and perhaps audiences—in a literary thriller. . . . Marvelously intriguing.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Whom do we really write for and why? Langer’s mad-genius look at creativity, publishing, and the difference between what we do for love and what we’re forced to do for money, plumbs the dark side of inspiration with funhouse aplomb. Dizzyingly brilliant, with prose as clear as a rushing stream.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times–bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow


“‘Revelatory. Keeps all its secrets to the end, which is a whopper.’ . . . Wait. That’s a blurb for a novel within Adam Langer’s novel. But it applies just as well to The Salinger Contract, Langer’s latest nervy excursion on the boundary between fiction, non-fiction, and literary gamesmanship. A lot of fun, up to and including that whopper . . .” —Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them and Memoir: A History

“In The Salinger Contract, Adam Langer serves as chief anthropologist, guiding us deftly through the tribal customs of the literary world—its longings, follies, disappointments, and secret obsessions. Like nesting boxes, this novel is neat with puzzles and intrigue. I couldn’t put it down—a cliché I can’t resist!” —Patricia Henley, National Book Award–nominated author of Other Heartbreaks and In the River Sweet

“The Salinger Contract is at once a mercilessly readable thriller, and a sly commentary on the state of the artist in the modern world. Langer undermines the reader’s expectation at every twist and turn, proving, as only the best thrillers do, that nothing is what it seems.” —Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving

 
Praise for Adam Langer
 
“Adam Langer’s enigmatic new book . . . twists and turns like a Mobius strip.” —National Public Radio on The Thieves of Manhattan
 
“Langer has that rare combination of fierce intelligence, wicked wit and the ability to make you turn the pages at wrist-splintering speed.” —USA Today on Ellington Boulevard
 
“A wonderful, heartfelt book.” —Ken Burns, director of The Civil War, on My Father’s Bonus March
 
“The most vivid novel about Chicago since Saul Bellow’s Herzog and the most ambitious debut set in Chicago since Philip Roth’s Letting Go . . .A terrific book.” —Chicago Tribune on Crossing California

From the Publisher

Langer (Crossing California, 2004, etc.) skewers pretensions of writers and writing, editors and publishers--and perhaps audiences--in a literary thriller. With his wife seeking tenure at Indiana University, the eponymous protagonist Adam Langer is a Bloomington house husband, shuffling between day care and shopping, saving a few moments to restart a stalled literary career. Son of an absent father (he knows only the name, Sid J. Langer) and a single mother who wrote anagrams and word puzzles, Adam has written one novel, but most of his writing has involved author profiles for a New York magazine. That's how he met Conner Joyce, writer of "honest-cop-stuck-in-a-corrupt-system tales." Conner is reading in Bloomington; Adam drops by for a visit. Later, after a reading in Chicago, Conner calls Adam with a fantastic story. Conner has been offered $2.5 million to write a novel for a mysterious fellow named Dex Dunford. The book will be read only by Dunford and his bodyguard, Pavel, who "looked as if he might once have worked on a security detail for Vladimir Putin." More fascinating, Dunford also owns unpublished manuscripts by J. D. Salinger, Harper Lee and other famous writers. Needing money, Conner agrees to write the novel. And that's when the fun begins. Along the way, there's a jewel-encrusted zip drive, a bank heist and a revelation that fractures Adam's perception of his heritage. The denouement is great. Marvelously intriguing.

Kirkus Reviews