Thomas Berger

DIVA dozen remarkable short stories from the author of Little Big Man, offering an absurdist journey through the mind of one of America’s great storytellers/divDIV/divDIVThomas Berger’s first short story collection in almost thirty years showcases the author’s acclaimed wit, intellect, and emotional sureness. His pages teem with larger-than-life characters: Dr. Poon, a Hollywood snake handler in way over his head during a film shoot in Southeast Asia; Charlie, an apartment superintendent who finds a peculiarly powerful plastic pistol; and Vernon, the confused owner of a talking puppy. No matter where Berger takes his readers, his world is full of oddities./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Thomas Berger including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./divDIV /div

A novel of alternate realities from the Pulitzer Prize–nominated author: “Those willing to spend a few hours in his Twilight Zone will come away the richer” (Library Journal). With a loving wife and son, a successful job as chief copy-editor, and a schedule all his own, Walter Hunsicker is happy with his existence. But into each life some rain must fall. Taking shelter from a heavy storm with a stranger, Walter confesses there are small things he wouldn’t mind changing about himself. He’d like more money, a little less monotony, and maybe a new name. Something like Jack Kellog. The stranger, possessing a power unfathomable to Walter, eagerly makes his wish a reality. Walter doesn’t walk back into the rain, but into another life. As rich, womanizing, slumlord Jack Kellog, he shocks himself so much that he tracks the stranger down and asks for his life back before the day’s through. But once the stranger agrees to end his experiment, Hunsicker returns home to devastating news. His son has AIDS, and is beyond treatment. Desperate to spare his family and himself this cruel fate, Walter leaps into new lives. Comedian, writer, radio psychologist: Are any of the new Jack Kellogs enough to escape Walter Hunsicker’s grief?

DIVThomas Berger’s debut novel of a young man tumultuously coming of age in postwar Germany/divDIV/divDIV/divDIVCarlo Reinhart, a young American army medic stationed in Germany, confronts a disturbing new world following the end of World War II. Living in Berlin, a city fractured into barricaded sectors by the occupying powers, Reinhart begins to drive himself mad with memories of the evils he has witnessed and questions about how the atrocities took place. When he meets an idealistic Jew named Nathan Schild, Reinhart’s turmoil grows more acute. Schild works for both the Americans and the Russians, and he becomes a flashpoint for Reinhart’s anguish over the world’s vast contradictions. When Schild’s escapades lead to a powerful turning point, Reinhart is forced to come to terms with life’s ambiguities as well as with his own evolving identity./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Thomas Berger including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div

Thomas Berger breaks all the rules in this detective story that’s less who-done-it, and more why-done-it. “An original and powerful tale of a saintly murderer.”—Arthur Koestler "Detweiler is one of the most complex characters in modern fiction...the eeriest thing about him is that he is wholly believable, which is to say, of course, that Thomas Berger is a magnificent novelist. "—National Review Meet Joseph Detweiler—a polite, sincere, and thoughtful murderer. He believes in living in the moment, it’s just that every moment comes at a price. So when he murders Billie Bayson, her mother, and a boarder in their home on Christmas Eve, he really means no harm. He’s also not the first suspect. As the police delve into the sordid private lives of the Bayson family in the aftermath of this horrific event, seeking the real killer, Detweiler befriends Tierney, a detective assigned to the case. But as details of the case unravel, so does the chilling truth about Detweiler. He has not just committed the murder at hand. He believes he’s performed a kindness to Billie and to himself. In his mind has freed her from life, and himself from the flow of time. Can Detective Tierney live with knowing the killer was right under his nose?

Thomas Berger puts his signature spin on the Greek myth ORESTEIA in this brilliant story set in small-town America. “Gripping and funny, and, like the Greek tragedies, it leaves us thoughtful” —San Francisco Chronicle When Augie leaves to join the army, it’s the first time his family sees him as anything but a waste of space. Not too worried about the kids and fairly certain his wife is having an affair, Augie pulls up his bootstraps and enlists. Years later, Augie returns a war hero. With his pictures on the wall at the local bar and medals adorning his army uniform, he’s welcomed home with arms wide open by the locals. His wife, however, is a different matter entirely. She wasn’t counting on Augie coming back, ever. Hatching a plan with Augie’s cousin, E.G., the two do the unthinkable. Planning to electrocute him and make it look like an accident, the two murder Augie in his own home, hoping to get rid of him and take his pension. At the wrong place at the wrong time, Augie’s daughter Ellie finds out about everything. Enraged, she immediately accosts her brother Orrie on his visit from college, demanding revenge. What ensues is a tale truly worthy of the tragedy it is based on. Secrets are revealed and trusts are betrayed that change a family’s fate forever.

A bizarre sex role reversal novel in the world of the future where feminism has run completely amuck. Boys are raised to be passive and girls are raised to be tough, mean, and aggressive. The women of this world have taken on the superficial characteristics of men. They are parodies of men as the men are of women. They must use dildos on their boy-slaves in order to luxuriate in their absolute domination of them. Sex is presented as power. The main character of the novel is the completely feminized male secretary Goergie Cornell, who dresses and acts like a woman, and has major psychological problems. The book serves as a warning for those who wish to defy nature and try to "masculinize" women.

DIVThomas Berger’s modern hero Carlo Reinhart is thrust into the strangest chapter of his life yet/divDIV/divDIVCarlo Reinhart’s life has taken many turns. From his idealistic youth in Crazy in Berlin, to his entrance into adulthood in Reinhart in Love, through his uneasy tumble into middle age in Vital Parts, Reinhart has never lost his philosophical and even-minded disposition./divDIV /divDIVReinhart’s Women finds Reinhart divorced and living with his daughter, Winona, a successful model. His newest hobby is cooking, and he has become surprisingly accomplished for an amateur. But when he asks a woman over for a homemade lunch, Reinhart’s idyll is shattered. Adventures and misadventures conspire to put his nascent cooking skills to the test—and turn him into a postmodern celebrity. With Reinhart, Berger has created one of the great comic characters of the twentieth century—a man who beautifully represents, and parodies, his moment./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Thomas Berger including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./divDIV /div

The time is the 1930s. Buddy Sandifer, dressed in his natty white flannels, baby-blue shirt, striped tie, tan-and-white shoes, and coconut-straw hat with polka-dot band, is falling into one of his moods. Owner of a used-car lot and father of a fifteen-year-old son with a penchant for sex manuals, Buddy has decided to murder his wife and marry his mistress, Laverne, a robust blonde who cooks his favorite meal of fried pork chops, fried potatoes, and fried apples while wearing a short pink apron over black-lace step-ins and brassiere, long-gartered silk stockings, and platform shoes. The only problem is how to arrange the crime.

The legendary Jack Crabb takes another riotous romp through the Old West in an acclaimed novel that’s “impressive and delightful . . . very Mark Twain” (Daily News, New York). Jack Crabb is now 112 years old, and he isn’t done spinning yarns. In this sequel to Berger’s beloved novel Little Big Man, one of literature’s wiliest survivors continues his breathtaking tall tales of the Old West. Crabb claims to have witnessed most of the great historical events of the western frontier: hiding behind a wagon after a drunken Doc Holliday provokes the shootout at the OK Corral; joining Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley on tour with their international Wild West show; even taking tea with Queen Victoria when she came out of seclusion after a quarter century. No matter where Crabb lays his hat, he keeps his wizened, wry, and sharp commentary at the ready. The Return of Little Big Man is a sidesplitting novel of surprising emotional depth. This ebook features an all-new introduction by Thomas Berger, as well as an illustrated biography of the author including rare images and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection.

A bitterly comic novel of middle-aged angst and middle-class American life in the 1960s, by the acclaimed author of Little Big Man It is the late sixties in suburbia, and Carlo Reinhart’s life is a mess. He’s fat, broke, middle aged, and unemployed. His anarchist son hates him, and his wife has taken a younger lover and thrown Carlo out of the house. In fact, the only one who doesn’t consider him contemptible and ridiculous seems to be Carlo’s adoring, overweight daughter, who is almost as pathetic as he is. Even his affair with a twenty-two-year-old nymphomaniac is strangely unsatisfying. Then, just as he’s reaching his lowest point, the self-styled Ultimate Human Irrelevancy is offered a golden opportunity to grab a piece of the American Dream, thanks to the reappearance of his old school chum Bob Sweet. Bob, who has a gift for success, is inviting Reinhart to get in on the ground floor of his latest venture: cryonics. But while Carlo loves the taste of the good life that his friend has suddenly provided, he’s not quite certain whether Sweet wants him as a partner . . . or as a human popsicle. The third novel in Thomas Berger’s acclaimed Carlo Reinhart Series, Vital Parts is a stingingly hilarious swipe at twentieth-century culture and mores. Unrestrained and unapologetic, it is a tour de force from a master satirist that stands alongside Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, and the novels of Kurt Vonnegut as a trenchant and funny comment on American life.