Born Slippy (Repeater Books)

The first novel from the founder/editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books! 

Frank Baltimore is a bit of a loser, struggling by as a carpenter and handyman in rural New England when he gets his big break, building a mansion in the executive suburbs of Hartford. One of his workers is a charismatic eighteen-year-old kid from Liverpool, Dmitry, in the US in the summer before university. Dmitry is a charming sociopath, who develops a fascination with his autodidact philosopher boss, perhaps thinking that, if he could figure out what made Frank tick, he could be less of a pig. Dmitry heads to Asia and makes a neo-imperialist fortune, with a trail of corpses in his wake. When Dmitry’s office building in Taipei explodes in an enormous fireball, Frank heads to Asia, falls in love with Dmitry’s wife, and things go from bad to worse.

Combining the best elements of literary thriller, noir and political satire, Born Slippy is a darkly comic and honest meditation on modern life under global capitalism.

Praise for Born Slippy: 

“An instant, finely wrought story of friendship, ingenuity, and blithe evil. Lutz has the seven deadly sins nailed and rethought for our 2020 world. You’ve got to dig this book!”—James Ellroy

“A dangerous friendship propels Tom Lutz’s reluctant anti-hero Frank Baltimore from the rusty remains of blue collar Connecticut into the dangerous realm of international finance in this highly literary and always engaging 21st century noir. Careening between New England, Jakarta, Taipei and beyond via Los Angeles, Born Slippy confronts contemporary questions about the relativity of evil that no one can dodge.”—Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick and After Kathy Acker

Tom Lutz is the author of several books, including And the Monkey Learned Nothing (2016), Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World (2017) and Crying (2001). His work has been translated into a dozen languages and named amongst the New York Times' Notable Books. His book Doing Nothing (2007) won the American Book Award. He is the founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. Born Slippy is his first novel.

Steph Cha is the author of Follow Her Home, Beware Beware, Dead Soon Enough, and Your House Will Pay. She’s the noir editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books and a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. She lives in her native city of Los Angeles with her husband and two basset hounds.