Writer and professor
Janet Sarbanes presents a series of creative stories that call the
reader to examine the current state of our society—and where it
might end up—if issues of class, race and our general relationship
to each other are not addressed.
From the publisher:
“Populated by wise animals and hapless humans, The Protester Has
Been Released brilliantly evokes an end-of-the-world feeling that is
equal parts dread and hilarity. In nine precisely rendered stories
and a novella featuring the American president’s daughter, Sarbanes
takes on the big questions with gallows humor: What is freedom? What
is love? What is art? And what does it matter now?
In 'Meet Koko,'
the famous signing gorilla spends her nights secretly typing a
hilarious 'counter-narrative' onto her researcher’s laptop. 'The First Daughter Finds Her Way' chronicles the quest of a
president’s daughter to keep her father from invading the world’s
nations in reverse alphabetical order. Sibling rivalry turns lethal
in 'Who Will Sit with Maman?' And in 'Ars Longa,' a Colorado
town riddled with cancer turns to art making in order to cope with
the chaos of the present and the sins of the past. Whether chiseled
into discretely titled chunks, or rendered via extended interior
monologues, Sarbanes’ witty, affective prose deftly locates the
promise of a new society within the shell of the old. A fierce,
funny primer for our time.
'The Protester Has
Been Released' is a spectacular and subversive collection, made even
more so by its deceptive calm and supremely wry style.' --Maggie
Nelson”
