The Secret History of Las Vegas - Chris Abani.epub

Detective Salazar is headed home one evening when he’s called to check out a mysterious discovery on the edge of Lake Mead: conjoined twins, wading in the water, and next to them, a container of human blood. Salazar has been on the trail of a serial killer-could this strange pair be the murderer he’s searching for? The answer to this question, and the layers of deception and loss that extend from it, is at the core of The Secret History of Las Vegas, the new novel from the award-winning novelist and poet Chris Abani. Dark, complex, and suspenseful, The Secret History of Las Vegas creates a compelling portrait of a group of misfit characters caught up in a web of revenge.

The twins, Fire and Water, are members of the Carnival of Lost Souls, a community of freaks and sideshow acts living outside the Las Vegas city limits. By turns arrogant and evasive, the twins are brought in for psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Sunil Singh, an expert in psychopathic behavior. Sunil is haunted by memories of the political violence and racial oppression of his childhood in South Africa; for him, Fire and Water are not simply criminals or case studies, but fellow outsiders, in their own way. Together Sunil and Salazar are determined to unravel the mystery of the twins-their guilt or their innocence, their motive and their identity.

The Secret History of Las Vegas is built on a constellation of histories, both personal and political, and the novel shifts effortlessly from one character’s experience to another. Love, regret, and revenge are woven into the fabric of each character’s life; some, like Singh, seek to forget their past, while others, like Fire and Water, are determined to avenge it. Apartheid, abuse, and the casualties of America’s nuclear testing-many dark threads are woven into the plot, yet Abani’s novel is ultimately a compassionate one. His characters are flawed and their flaws are complex, but he presents them without judgment, leaving it to the reader to decide whether personal pain can ever justify terrible deeds.

Abani’s writing is crisp and quick, and he captures the hollow beauty of Las Vegas and the strange worlds that hover around the city’s edge. The Secret History of Las Vegas is not a standard mystery novel, nor is a tale of moral outrage, or heartbreak, or history-it is all these things and more. Abani sidesteps all expectations, bringing seemingly divergent plotlines together in a stunning conclusion that readers will be talking about well after they finish the book.

ABOUT CHRIS ABANI
Chris Abani is a poet and novelist whose work includes Graceland and The Virgin of Flames. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hemingway/PEN Prize, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship, among other honors. Originally from Nigeria, he lives in Chicago where he is a Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University.


PRAISE
Abani’s latest is not an ordinary crime novel….everyone is fucked.
The New Inquiry

Brisk and funny in ways the genre demands… The Secret History of Las Vegas brings an admirably global perspective to the crime novel.
The Washington Post

Conjoined twins Fire and Water are Abani’s most indelible creation.
Chicago Tribune

It’s Tony Hillerman as filtered through J.M. Coetzee, a moving, strange and savagely funny book.
Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times

part of the pleasure of the novel is the view into the strange history of Las Vegas… Abani adds many sides to the story he tells so unforgettably, giving voices to otherwise voiceless victims… The question may not be whether this beautiful, ruthless novel will come true but rather, Has it already come true? And if so, what should we do?
Barnes and Noble Reviews

The Secret History of Las Vegas is an intricate braid of story strands, enriched by vivid descriptions, intriguingly dysfunctional characters, and abundant metaphors. Expect the unexpected.
Booklist

Chris Abani might be the most courageous writer working right now. There is no subject matter he finds daunting, no challenge he fears. Aside from that, he’s stunningly prolific and writes like an angel. If you want to get at the molten heart of contemporary fiction, Abani is the starting point.
Dave Eggers, author of The Circle

Abani creates vivid metaphors not just with his characters, but also with a drowned town emerging from the waters of Lake Mead, a ghost town that hosts the Carnival of Lost Souls, and the city of Las Vegas, which celebrates the dark, the hidden and the grotesque.
Kirkus

Lambent prose lifts this offbeat crime novel from PEN/Hemingway Award–winner Abani (The Virgin of Flames), who effortlessly captures the essence of Sin City
Publishers Weekly (starred review)