Amnesia of June Bugs

redefines what a novel can be. Hurricane Sandy has just smashed into the Eastern Seaboard, trapping four passengers on the C train: a Chinese American graffiti artist grieving his father's death, a mixed-race graphic designer struggling to become a mom, a Moroccan French translator escaping his heartache in Paris, and an Indian American traveler leaving Chicago to regain control of her life. is an ambitious, infatuated, and furious book about the time we lost and the people we could have loved. "Jackson Bliss paints with words. He is the Kendrick Lamar of the literary world." " is a lush, kaleidoscopic love song to the city. Jackson Bliss's voice is original, and intricately wrought. It is cerebral and tender. There is so much passion and love in these pages. I love how central a role identity and mixed race experience play here, and how this thrilling story keeps you gripped all the while, like a train underground in a storm, headed for what you can't know but can't stop reading to find out." "In , Jackson Bliss has written a bold, innovative masterpiece. I luxuriated over every sentence of this smart, zeitgeisty novel. At once tender and acute, Bliss deftly captures the multifaceted lives of his diverse cast of characters. The amalgamation of honest characters, stylistic feats, and shrewd social commentary makes this singular novel a must-read. Jackson Bliss delivers a hip, intimate, and heartfelt exploration of our multicultural, cosmopolitan world, one full of promise and yet under threat. He is one of the great advocates and defenders of such a world, so urgently embodied in this very necessary novel." "A virtuosic feat of storytelling with fire on every page. It feels prophetic, like a meditation on aspects of identity and pop culture that haven't even been invented yet." , Ginger Lin, Winnie Yu, Aziz Al-Wahnan, and Suzanne Gupta are trapped on the C-train in the NYC underground. Hurricane Sandy swirls above. In this brief rupture in time, their rebellious metamorphoses intersect, stories emerging from hybrid bodies, woven cultures, translingual narratives at play with graffiti, screenplay, questionnaire, lyric lists. Jackson Bliss, diasporic hapa-Whitman, has written protest poem, manifesto, and anthem-a 21st century love song to America. "Jackson Bliss is as verbally exuberant as any writer I've come across in years. is beautifully conceived, powerful, affecting, hip, comedic, and as close to being of-the-moment as it is possible for a novel to be." -