PRAISE FOR DEUS EX MACHINA

"Brilliant... One of the best novels about American culture in years." - NPR

"Deus Ex Machina was a book waiting for someone to write it, and luckily Andrew Foster Altschul took on the job... this is a heady, fast-paced novel." - The Wall Street Journal

"A dark fable about the depravities of contemporary life and the grotesque falsifications that undergird our reality-television culture... Weirdly masterful." - The Believer

"A beautifully written treatment on the anguish and uncertainty of being." - The Brooklyn Rail

"Deus Ex Machina manages simultaneously to be philosophical, absurd, kinda dirty, hilarious and, well, Real... Think Shakespeare's The Tempest gone distressingly and wonderfully modern." - Rivka Galchen

"Altschul rips into reality TV and the soulless society it mirrors in a satire that takes Survivor for a midnight stroll into oblivion." - The Oregonian

"A rich examination of the concept of free will and reality." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Absurd and hilarious... Altschul brilliantly blurs fact and fantasy, entertainment and voyeurism, forming a smartly funny and timely montage that challenges the meaning of celebrity." - Booklist

"A modern greek tragedy - a creation myth of the new social contract." - The Rumpus

"In Deus Ex Machina, Altschul speeds us... into a realization of our hunger for simultaneous entertainment and bloodshed: the kind of existential cocktail which undoubtedly intoxicated the mob at gladiatorial battles in ancient Rome." - Poetry Flash

"So well written that you can't look away." - The Stranger

"Powerful, beautifully written and highly affecting." - Metro Silicon Valley

"Searing, riveting, shockingly smart... Altschul fearlessly plunges into the heart of darkness - reality television - and finds the tragicomedy of our time." - Stacey D'Erasmo

"In a society of glorified Biggest Losers, Survivors, and Idols, Altschul presents a poignant critique on our favorite cultural obsession: 'reality.'" - Sacramento News & Review

"A fine, funny novel... Altschul gives the book the kind of see-saw suspense of so much reality television, then undercuts it with some deadly poetic satire." - Popmatters

"Biting and witty... Much can be said about our twisted media culture, and Altschul knows just how to say it." - Seattlest.com

"Rarely has societal critique come with more mayhem... an anarchic assault on the dehumanizing power of media." - Publishers Weekly

"Hilarious and wrenching, Deus Ex Machina trashes the absurdities of media culture... and it never lets us forget that no one is immune from - and that everyone is accountable for - all of our toxic dreams of power." - Jim Shepard

A Rumpus Book Club Selection