The Double Life of Alfred Buber Hits Store Shelves June 1

Author David Schmahmann's fourth novel, The Double Life of Alfred Buber, a spellbinding literary novel with overtones likened to that of Vladimir Nabokov's famed Lolita, will hit store shelves Wednesday, June 1.

The Double Life of Alfred Buber is a memoir about an illicit love affair that one gradually begins to realize is rather different than the author confesses. Alfred Buber is a pillar of his community, a respected man with a secret, and a secret life, until one day the two cross over and even he can no longer tell which is real and which is not. Buber's passion for women is matched only by his inability to relate to them, and after years of bruising attempts to find love he seeks his escape in an illegitimate and all encompassing romance with a Bangkok bargirl. She may reciprocate. She may not. Buber's dilemma to believe in her, and in what he is doing, or not, to bring her home to Boston, or not, to continue a wholly respectable life that is bringing him no happiness, or not, is the premise of this unforgettable, truly unforgettable, love story, and its equally unforgettable, completely flawed, lovers.

EARLY REVIEWS: As Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha) writes on the back cover, Schmahmann "has created a character with the vividness of J. Alfred Prufrock or Humbert Humbert," a sentiment echoed by Daphne Kalotay who calls Buber "as great a comic character as Nok is a tragic one, and their intertwined story recalls truths about poverty, loneliness, and our often misguided attempts at love." "An unusual morality play whose artful style veils the depravity of its protagonist," said Kirkus Reviews. "Schmahmann has captured desperation and love between unequals," said Publishers Weekly.

Published by Permanent Press, The Double Life of Alfred Buber is a 198-page hardcover that retails for $28. Editorial copies are available upon request or consumer copies may be purchased at your local book retailer or by visiting Amazon.com.

ABOUT DAVID SCHMAHMANN
David Schmahmann was born in Durban, South Africa. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School, and has studied in India and Israel and worked in Burma. His first novel, Empire Settings, received the John Gardner Book Award, and his publications include a short story in The Yale Review and articles on legal issues. Other books include Nibble & Kuhn, Empire Settings, Ivory from Paradise, and The Double Life of Alfred Buber. He practices law in Boston, and lives in Weston, Massachusetts.

For more information, please visit www.davidschmahmann.com.