New Pulp Press Presents New Mark Rapacz Noir Novel, FOREIGNERS
By: Christina Mancuso Aug. 11, 2015
New Pulp Press presents New Mark Rapacz Noir Novel, FOREIGNERS.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
"Rapacz is a word wizard and Foreigners will have you under one hell of a spell."
- C.T. McNeely, Editor-in-Chief, Double Life Press and Dark Corners
"Foreigners is an ambitious, incendiary explosion of a novel ... that calls to mind the work of Irvine Welsh and Anthony Burgess."
- Mike Miner, author of Prodigal Sons and The Immortal Game
"Rapacz deftly flips the meaning of this crime novel's title, as the ugly Americans are the titularForeigners here, a gaggle of punks who've come to Korea under the guise of teaching English as a second language, but learning violence and the imprecise art of drug-slinging as a third."
- David James Keaton, author of The Last Projector and Fish Bites Cop!
"Foreigners is a mesmerizing trip into the seedy underworld of South Korea and a revelatory look at the lost and violent characters who dwell there. Rapacz peels back the bloody layers of both the city of Seoul and the human heart and the reader cannot look away."
- David Oppegaard, author of And the Hills Opened Up
THE STORY: Two countries: South Korea, an economic powerhouse; North Korea, a rogue nation with nuclear capabilities. Two foreigners --
waeguk -- from Minnesota: Ben, coming to terms with his homosexuality; Durst, dreaming of himself as a James Dean tough guy. They teach English as-a-second-language at a private school in Seoul. The school is also the front for a drug-smuggling gang headed by its owner, Mr. Kim. Ben and Durst are drawn into the illicit trade -- for the excitement and the money.Then some on-the-run farmers from the North show up, followed by some less savory characters, a simple smuggling operation turns a lot more dangerous. A unique new voice in crime, Mark Rapacz takes you on an unputdownable odyssey deep into this violent Korean underworld where nothing is quite what it seems and life is as ephemeral as a knife blade glinting in neon lights.
THE AUTHOR: Mark Rapacz's stories have appeared in a number of publications, including Plots with Guns, Revolver, Thuglit, Dark Corners, The Booked. Anthology, Water-Stone Review, East Bay Review, Martian Lit and The Best American Non-required Reading. His novel, City Kaiju, won a 2014 Golden Goodis for best work of science fiction. He and his wife live in Minneapolis where he continues to write stories.
THE FIRST REVIEW: "
Foreigners (Waeguk) is a gritty crime novel set in South Korea, following Ben, a young American, as he realizes again and again he's deeper into the underworld of Korean crime than his naive pride initially lets him believe... There is plenty of great action in the novel -- gruesome gunplay and hard-boiled hand-to-hand combat -- but it is intercutwith insightful and gorgeous writing. Ben is a great protagonist and great narrator, both sensitive and full of rage, the product of having to fight for himself as an out of the closet teen in a conservative farm town... The novel is fueled in equal measure by the urge to empathize and the urge to destroy.
As such, Foreigners is an unsettling but satisfying read, well worth your time. And if you need a laugh after, check out Mark Rapacz's hilarious Les Toilettes d' Alcatraz, a must for any modern coffee table."
-Evan Kingston@ http://www.evankingston.com
$14.95 trade paperback
$4.99 ebook
BUY FOREIGNERS:
http://www.newpulppress.com/bookpage/foreigner.html
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