Win Still Life Las Vegas: A Novel by James Sie!
Win Still Life Las Vegas: A Novel by James Sie! To enter the contest, fill out the form below between August 11 and September 1.
Still Life Las Vegas: A Novel
An astonishing literary debut about a young man who, in the search for clues into the disappearance of his mother twelve years earlier, discovers himself in the process.
Recent high school graduate and aspiring artist Walter Stahl lives with his ailing father in the dregs of Las Vegas, their lives overshadowed by the disappearance of Walter's mother, who drove off when he was five and never returned. Although Walter has never so much as seen a photograph of his mother, it doesn't stop him from keeping an eye out for her in the groups of tourists he caters to in his dead-end job along the Strip.
Then Walter meets Chrysto and Acacia, a brother and sister working at the Venetian Hotel, and his world cracks open. Spending less time caring for his father, and more time riding on the backs of Vespas and drawing, Walter finds life has more to offer than he could have imagined. But as his feelings for Chrysto deepen, and as clues behind his mother's disappearance start to reveal themselves, Walter is forced to face the truth about himself and his family history.
Threading through this coming-of-age story are beautiful and heart-wrenching graphic illustrations, depicting how Walter's mother Emily, a Vietnamese-born accordion player, abandoned her family to chase a vision of Liberace across the country; and how Walter's father went searching for her amongst the gondolas of the Venetian Hotel.
In Still Life Las Vegas, the magical collides with the mundane; memory, sexual awakening and familial ties all lead to a place where everything is illuminated, and nothing is real.
JAMES SIE was born and raised in Summit, NJ., the son of immigrant parents, a Chinese father and an Italian mother. After attending Northwestern University, he lived in Chicago for many years, working as an actor and an award-winning playwright of literary adaptations. Currently, he lives in Los Angeles with his husband and son, where he works as a voiceover artist in animation, most notably in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness; King of the Hill and Jackie Chan Adventures.
"Still Life Las Vegas is one of the most startlingly assured debut novels I've ever read. James Sie's writing is gorgeous and the story is heartbreaking. I am in awe."-Augusten Burroughs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors and This is How
"Still Life Las Vegas is powerful, comical, and it breaks your heart. I did not want it to end." -Diana Wagman, author of The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets
