{"product_id":"black-bag-9781638933380","title":"Black Bag","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Tremendously deft . . . it had me laughing, unnerved, and hopeful as it galloped through a true and strange world.\" --Emily Nemens, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Cactus League\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime--sitting soundlessly in a lecture theater, zipped into a large leather bag--to aid a professor's psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Luke Kennard's audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend's students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own--in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag?--and the actor's childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation . . . \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity, and an off-kilter love story, \u003ci\u003eBlack Bag\u003c\/i\u003e is a firework of a novel: blazingly funny and profoundly humane. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A genre-defying, big-swing of a novel . . . a sharply funny meditation on masculinity, academia, the modern attention economy, and the quiet desperation of everyday life.\" --Andrew Boryga, author of \u003ci\u003eVictim\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLuke Kennard\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning poet and novelist. In 2014 he was named one of the Next Generation Poets by the Poetry Book Society in their once-per-decade list. His collection, \u003ci\u003eCain\u003c\/i\u003e, was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and described by Alan Hollinghurst as \"the cleverest and funniest thing I've read this year,\" and \u003ci\u003eNotes on the Sonnets\u003c\/i\u003e won the Forward prize for Best Poetry Collection in 2021. \u003ci\u003eThe Transition\u003c\/i\u003e, his first novel, was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Jonah\u003c\/i\u003e, his new poetry collection, will be published by Picador in 2025. Luke Kennard lives in Birmingham, UK, where he teaches Creative Writing at Birmingham University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Zando","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52101704548626,"sku":"9781638933380","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_32aa0435-9f4f-40c3-8a63-44ecae759b67.jpg?v=1773138288","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/black-bag-9781638933380","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}