Paradise, Nevada
Download image
ISBN10: 1635576202
ISBN13: 9781635576207
Hardcover
512 Pages
$28.00
CA$38.00
On Friday, May 1st, 2015 a bomb detonates in the infamous Positano Luxury Resort and Casino, a mammoth hotel (and exact replica of the Amalfi coast) on the Las Vegas Strip.
Six months prior, a crop of strivers converge on the desert city, attempting to make a home amidst the dizzying lights: Ray, a mathematically-minded high stakes professional poker player; Mary Ann, a clinically depressed cocktail waitress; Tom, a tourist from the working class suburbs of Rome, Italy; and Lindsay, a Mormon journalist for the Las Vegas Sun who dreams of a literary career. By chance and by design, they find themselves caught up in backroom schemes for personal and political power, and are thrown into the deep end of an even bigger fight for the soul of the paradoxical town.
A furiously rowdy and ricocheting saga about poker, happiness, class, and selflessness, Paradise, Nevada is a panoramic tour of America in miniature, a vertiginously beautiful systems novel where the bloody battles of neo-liberalism, immigration, labor, and family rage underneath Las Vegas' beguiling and strangely benevolent light. This exuberant debut marks the beginning of a significant career.
Reviews
Praise for Paradise, Nevada
“Paradise, Nevada won't just compel with its high-stakes momentum, it'll teach you to win high-stakes poker! Dario Diofebi is an irreverent and audacious new voice.”—Susan Choi, National Book Award-Winning author of Trust Exercise
“Dario Diofebi is a wonder—a brilliant comic voice telling a thrilling compassionate story. People have talked about the complete winning package, the full boat that's aces over kings, and that's Diofebi: piercingly funny about modern life, compassionately human about his characters. Diofebi's written the ultimate poker novel, the ultimate casino story—but there's also the voice, one you know is going to be around for a long time, with the thrill of catching it on day one, on the ground floor.”—David Lipsky, author of Absolutely American and Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
“This is a book made of neon and late nights and that glass of scotch that appears just when you want it. It's been years since I read anything nearly as fun. Vegas has been right there forever, waiting for a great novelist, and Dario Diofebi has come dealing nothing but aces.”—Darin Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award-Winning author of Half a Life
“Paradise, Nevada is a superbly energetic novel of Las Vegas, a place teeming with glittering wins and crushing losses. When the bright lights go out, Dario Diofebi proves himself to have a great eye for the cards different people are dealt, and a great ear for laughter in the dark.”—Jonathan Lee, author of High Dive and The Great Mistake
“A big, bold, searching American novel . . . This sprawling, delightful debut book captures the artificial worlds within worlds in the casinos, the unnavigable streets just outside the strip, the big dreams, and the bad beats. It has a labor dispute, a big explosion, and an immigration saga. Most of all it has four vivid strivers at its core. The author, who spent several years as a professional poker player (both online and live), knows these people and their habitats, and he brings them to life in colorful, page-turning detail.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This is a heady read, filled with surprising turns of phrase and unexpected relationships . . . Readers of complex literary fiction will appreciate the sharp and nuanced writing.”—Booklist
“With intelligence and empathy, Diofebi delivers a powerful and unapologetic slice of Americana.”—Publishers Weekly