A masterful blend of political satire and edgy social commentary, here is a wildly entertaining trip through recent American history and into the impending future. An incisive look at how we love and hate our political leaders, and how they love and hate us back, The X President touches the very heart of what it means to be president—and what a president means to America. It is the year 2055 and America is entangled in a devastating world war—and losing badly. As the threat of homeland invasion grows stronger, the United States is desperate to change the tide, anyway it can. Enter Sal Hayden, official biographer of a former president known as BC, now 109 years old and all but forgotten. Charismatic, controversial, and always willing to feel another person’s pain, BC’s political career, like his personal life, is marked by both uncanny triumphs and key blunders—some of which may have doomed the U.S. to defeat. Recording his story has not always been easy, but it has been straightforward. That is, until the day Sal is asked to rewrite it—and not just on the page. For Sal will be granted a biographer’s most fantastic dream, one that will thrust her into the greatest moral dilemma of her life—and the world’s most daring, dangerous, and spectacular spin job. . . .

The X-President

Literature & Fiction

Baruth, Philip

United States

Bantam]

Having vaulted to a position in the United States Senate at the tender age of thirty-four, Patrick Leahy now claims the longest tenure of any member of that institution still serving―and he was third in line for the presidency when the Democrats held control. Few recent American lawmakers have watched history unfold so at such close range; fewer still have influenced it so powerfully. Philip Baruth brings a thriller-like intensity to the most spectacular of those scenes: the 9/11 attack on the US capital, the contentious drafting of the Patriot Act, the ensuing anthrax attacks, and the dramatic 2014 opening of diplomatic ties with Cuba. Throughout, the biography focuses in on Leahy’s meticulous image making, his cultivation of a “Top Cop” persona both in the media and at the ballot box. It is an approach that culminates in simultaneous roles for the lawmaker as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as the tough-talking “distinguished gentleman” in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy of Batman films. Leahy’s improbable success, Philip Baruth argues, in the end lies in his ability both to be and to play the top cop not only in post-Watergate Vermont, but in a post-9/11 America viciously divided between the red states and the blue.

Senator Leahy: A Life in Scenes

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

University Press of New England

"[An] accurate, original, and entertaining fictional reconstruction."--Boston Globe 
“Baruth (The X-President) shows his versatility with this chilling literary thriller. . . . The subtle way the author examines his character's twisted mind draws the reader in, as does the evocative prose.”—Publishers Weekly 
“The Brothers Boswell is such an impressive book, both for its ability to inhabit its source material and for how well it shines on its own merits. Many novels claim to be literary thrillers, but rarely are they quite this literary and quite this thrilling. Philip Baruth has written a remarkable work.”—David Liss, author of The Whiskey Rebels 
“Meticulously researched, The Brothers Boswell has a strong narrative line, psychological allure, and plenty of adventure. I recommend the book for both the general reader and the aficionado.”—Frances Sherwood, author of Vindication and Night Sorrows Praise for Philip Baruth: “Ingenious, often hilarious . . . if you can handle a fanciful plot and an onslaught of irreverence.”—The Washington Post Book World “History won’t stand still in this clever time-travel romp.”—The New York Times Book Review “An engaging, action-filled adventure.”—San Francisco Chronicle The year is 1763.Twenty-two-year-old James Boswell of Edinburgh is eager to advance himself in London society. Today his sights are set on furthering his acquaintance with Dr. Samuel Johnson, famed for his Dictionary; they are going to take a boat across the Thames to Greenwich Palace. Watching them secretly is John Boswell, James’ younger brother. He has stalked his older brother for days. Consumed with envy, John is planning to take revenge on his brother and Johnson for presumed slights. He carries a pair of miniature pistols that fire a single golden bullet each, and there is murder in his heart. Philip Baruth is an award-winning commentator for Vermont Public Radio and a graduate of Brown University with an MA and PhD from the University of California at Irvine. His previous novel, The X President (Bantam Books, 2003) received critical acclaim. He teaches at the University of Vermont.

Brothers Boswell

Soho Press

In this literary thriller set in eighteenth-century London, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are threatened by Boswell's mad and envious younger brother John.

30th July, 1763. Two striking figures part the heaving crowd at London Bridge. Peddlers cease their haggling, ferrymen grow quiet, beggars stop and stare. Even the stink of the Thames seems to fade in the presence of Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell - history's most famous friends.  Boswell, as charismatic and meticulously coiffed as Johnson is bullish and badly dressed, is eager to advance himself in literary society. Today he is to accompany the great Dr Johnson on an excursion up the Thames - and he is determined that nothing will go wrong. But another Boswell is watching from the shadows, insanely jealous of his elder brother's meteoric rise through London's coffeehouses and whorehouses, tenements and theatres, soirees and salons. He has two golden pistols in his pocket, a ferryboat at his disposal - and murder in his heart.

The Brothers Boswell

Genre Fiction

Corvus

Philip Baruth's short story collection exhibits many of the strengths that have characterized his work over twenty years in the novel form. In humorous ways, Baruth’s stories explore familiar aspects of our infectious media culture. The smaller scale of the works brings into higher relief the psychological dynamics that drive his characters. His protagonists are ordinary people caught in dangerous predicaments partly of their own making who are also carried along by the powerful current of broader cultural forces. By wishful and evidentiary means, they revisit the past, hoping to correct or erase the most fateful elements. In Baruth’s novel The X President (Bantam 2003), about the aftermath of Bill Clinton’s presidency, the device of time-travel magically enables the reshaping of history, and the mission of the main characters remains largely external to their own lives. The characters in the present stories are more deeply implicated in the errors of the past: they may carry the most hazardous materials inside them. In the title story, the hazard is a virus that works like a time bomb, delivering horror from an idyllic source. In “Anthony Buys Pornography,” it is a lingering token of unseemly desire; and in “Peaheart” and “Nancy &amp; Tanya &amp; the Long Hard Rain,” it’s a personal secret—a weakness at the core of the character. These stories confront the consequences of human weakness while still allowing the characters their full humanity and a chance at redemption.

American Zombie Beauty (American Storytellers)

Wolfson Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baruth, Philip. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baruth, Philip

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baruth, Philip. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The X-President

Senator Leahy: A Life in Scenes

Brothers Boswell

Brothers Boswell

The Brothers Boswell

American Zombie Beauty (American Storytellers)