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Book Cover for: Diasporama, Bruce Ferber

Diasporama

Bruce Ferber

Welcome to very-near-future Los Angeles, where the economic divide and culture wars are at the tipping point. As neighborhood crime and homeless encampments infiltrate the fabric of idyllic suburbs, residents respond with fear and anger, vowing to do whatever it takes to hold on to their hard-earned American Dream, no matter the human cost.

We see communities ripped apart and marriages uprooted, embodied in the fraying dynamic between fortyish interior designer, Wendy Forman, and her husband, Brad, a physician who heads an exclusive concierge practice. Wendy starts her own neighborhood watch group to help fend off the bad guys. Brad runs into an injured man behind a dumpster at the local shopping center and tends to his wounds, which proves to be a life-changing interaction. It propels the doctor to moonlight outside his comfort zone in the world of street medicine, where he combs the campsites and freeway underpasses to treat the underserved. There, he bonds with the lost, the drug-addled; the discards, and forms a special connection with street-smart Laila Purcell, a woman who becomes determined to rise above what seems like an endless series of bad breaks.

Diasporama is where the well-heeled meet the shoeless. Where the unhinged bully the unhoused. Where every scrap of real estate is gold in somebody's pocket. Ergo, the empathy of street docs and the plight of the have-nots make little impact on political and corporate "haves." Conflicting passions lead to fierce battle, a fight to the finish for what kind of society we want to be, and how we choose to define wealth. The results are as surprising as they are profound.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Story Plant
  • Publish Date: Aug 13rd, 2024
  • Pages: 368
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00in - 0.00lb
  • EAN: 9781611883947
  • Categories: LiteraryPoliticalUrban & Street Lit

About the Author

Bruce Ferber is the author of three previous novels, Elevating Overman, the Foreword Gold Prizewinner Cascade Falls, and I Buried Paul. He also edited the nonfiction anthology The Way We Work: On the Job in Hollywood. Prior to writing books, Ferber built a long and successful career as a writer-producer for television comedy. A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominee, his credits include Bosom Buddies, Coach, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and Home Improvement, where he served as Executive Producer and showrunner. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, large dog, and many musical instruments.

Praise for this book

"In the sweeping narrative that is Diasporama, Bruce Ferber takes on the dangers of unchecked populism while illuminating the ways in which dignity and decency can survive (and thrive) within it. As Ferber's diverse cast of characters confronts a Los Angeles homelessness crisis bursting at the seams, passions run hot and consensus goes AWOL. The preferred solution skews horrific, yet the novel manages to turn the most contentious issue of our time into a clarion call for hope. A story of the moment - for all of us."--Donald Cohen, author of The Privitization of Everything
"The distance between the dystopian Los Angeles of so much fiction and the one in which we now live seems to get narrower each day. Bruce Ferber's Diasporama pitches itself inside this shrinking gap by training a gimlet eye and a Steinbeckian clarity on this all-too-real dystopia's most pressing feature: our housing crisis. Diasporama is a total knockout."--Matthew Specktor, author of Always Crashing in the Same Car
"Brimming with both humor and heartbreak, Bruce Ferber's Diasporama is an ambitious sociopolitical epic targeting America's toxic mix of wealth inequality, racism, social media obsessiveness, and insatiable consumerism. The novel challenges us to examine what becomes of our humanity and values when people are treated like disposable commodities; easier to discard or store out of sight than confront face to face. At once thought-provoking, guilt-inducing, and inspiring, the beauty of Diasporama is that it does not simply pose the question. It compels us to stop averting our gaze and stare it in the eye."--Rudy Ruiz, award-winning author of Valley of Shadows
"Bruce Ferber has crafted a thoughtful, nuanced story with a cast of characters that could well be your friends, your neighbors, the people you drive by hidden in tents along the underpass--and, most of all, you. Chances are, you will see yourself in multiple characters. Diasporama will make you think about yourself and your place within your community. It may ruffle and challenge you, and it will shine a light on the hard topics of today and what it means to be 'well meaning.'"--Cari Lynn, NAACP Image Award-winning writer of Becoming Ms. Burton and The Whistleblower
"Bruce Ferber's Diasporama is an Altmanesque portrait of Los Angeles, rich and vividly imagined in both its bleak truths and its compassionate sense of character. A stunning and important work."--Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk