The fiction surprise of 2008aheralded by The New York Times as aa sharplyobserved yet tender novela and a aquirky tart yet unexpectedly generousstoryaafinally i... » 

The fiction surprise of 2008aheralded by The New York Times as aa sharplyobserved yet tender novela and a aquirky tart yet unexpectedly generousstoryaafinally in paperback Klugeas brilliant novel tells of George Canaris awriting professor who is on the verge of forced retirement at a small collegein Ohio when he is killed by a hitandrun driver. Klugeas creation of Canarisas the first faculty member in half a century whose death merits an obituary inthe New York Times is right on the money. aA writer a critic a professor acampus legend and a national figure the very embodiment of the liberal arts athe fictional Times obituary said. And a mystery. Canaris hero and antihero was the author of two wellreceived novels and a book of essays allpublished more than thirty years ago. Taken together they were the beginningsof an impressive shelf to which in all his years in Ohio he added nothing.aCompared to Faulkner and Dos Passo at the start of his career a the Timesobserved ain the end Canaris resembled Harper Lee.a With a book listed amongthe 100 greatest novels of all time decades separating Canaris from the heftyadvance taken on his next bookaThe Beast which was to be his masterpieceaandnot a page to show of it Canaris is a great fictional creationaan enigma.Inevitably speculation grows that the book was a myth a lie a joke. Everypassing year made skeptics more confident. But never certain. Upon his deathMark May a young English professor who barely knew him finds himself named asCanarisas literary executora executor of what is unclear. Thus begins a searchthrough lives and letters that is at once gripping hilarious and affirming. Atrue pageturner P.F. Klugeas Gone Tomorrow is equal parts Richard Russoand Michael Chabon and yet entirely unlike anything youave ever read. «