DANCING TO MOZART

A zany tale of far-fetched adventures on a tropical island.

Novelist Eriksson (Moonbeam in My Pocket: A Mystery of the Negro League, 2010, etc.) pens a riveting tale of misadventure and magical realism. Freddie Felcher, a father of somewhat dubious ethics, kidnaps his 4-year-old illegitimate son, Jesus, from Brenda Cranston, an aging and ailing woman. Brenda, who is trapped in a hospital, can’t stop Freddie, and so he and Jesus escape on a ship to Veracruz. The crew kicks them off the ship and abandons Freddie and Jesus on an island, where they encounter the beautiful young female wrestler Stella. She explains that she was named after her father’s “favorite accompaniment to his coffee, biscotti, by Stella D’Oro.” Stella has had one of her breasts removed so she’ll look like an Amazon woman, and she’s fleeing zombies who insist on making her one of their kind. The three escape to Baluga, where Stella’s celebrity father is being held hostage by a dictator. It soon becomes apparent that the rescue team is in danger; the island’s dictator is a malicious mind reader with a deadly agenda. This quick-paced, imaginative romp through a powerful feminist colony and a high-stakes game of Simon Says recalls Heart of Darkness and 1984. Freddie’s endless adventures and the characters he meets surprise and delight. Smartly told, as well as laugh-out-loud funny, Freddie’ s unique odyssey is a series of encounters unlike any other. The story’s satirical retelling of archetypal tales has a modern edge and unpredictable twists.

A raunchy, epic journey as a man discovers he can be a hero in an unlikely way.