After a flu pandemic, a large-scale terrorist attack, and the total collapse of Wall Street, New York City is reduced to a shadow of its former self. As the city struggles to dig itself out of the wreckage, a nameless, obsessive-compulsive veteran with a spotty memory, a love for literature, and a strong if complex moral code (that doesn’t preclude acts of extreme violence) has taken up residence at the main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. Dubbed "Dewey Decimal" for his desire to reorganize the library's stock, our protagonist (who will reappear in the next novel in this series) gets by as bagman and muscle for New York City's unscrupulous district attorney. Decimal takes no pleasure in this kind of civic dirty work. He'd be perfectly content alone amongst his books. But this is not in the cards, as the DA calls on Dewey for a seemingly straightforward union-busting job. What unfolds throws Dewey into a bloody tangle of violence, shifting allegiances, and old vendettas, forcing him to face the darkness of his own past and the question of his buried identity. With its high body count and snarky dialogue, The Dewey Decimal System pays respects to Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. Healthy amounts of black humor and speculative tendencies will appeal to fans of Charlie Huston, Nick Tosches, Duane Swierczynski, Victor Gischler, Robert Ferrigno, and early Jonathan Lethem. Nathan Larson is best known as an award-winning film music composer, having created the scores for over thirty movies such as Boys Don’t Cry, Dirty Pretty Things, and The Messenger. In the 1990s he was the lead guitarist for the influential prog-punk outfit Shudder to Think. This is his first novel. Larson lives in Harlem, New York City, with his wife and son.

The Dewey Decimal System (Akashic Urban Surreal)

Literature & Fiction

Larson, Nathan

United States

Akashic Books Ltd

A Barnes and Noble Mystery Book Club Summer Reading Pick! "Dewey is a seriously weird dude, obsessed with Purell...and generally trying to survive in a world that's been unraveled from manifold disasters...Whiplash prose, teeth-gnashing dialogue and post-civilization concepts that make a crazy (amateur) librarian in a pitch-black world a hall of a lot of fun...A good time for fans of the likes of Charlie Huston and Charles Stross." --Kirkus Reviews "A taut, action movie-violent mystery that will appeal to fans of Larson's earlier novel as well as those who like dystopian literature." --Library Journal "Larson's vividly imagined world and his quirky narrator are likely to win him a cadre of loyal fans." --Publishers Weekly "This doubleheader, the 'soft apocalypse' noir thrillers The Dewey Decimal System and The Nervous System by former Shudder To Think guitarist Nathan Larson, turns out to contain one of most inventive post-apocalyptic milieus I've ever come across... Two of the most legitimately exciting novels I've read in a long time, these had the rare ability to completely suck me out of my daily reality... taut genre actioners that belie the usual tropes of their genres, and which will undoubtedly be making our Best Of The Year lists come December" --Chicago Center for Literature and Photography "Sheer magic and delirious joy, this intellectual giddy riot is the book of the year. The Nervous System is a rock 'n' roll paranoid masterclass in invention, with writing so crafted, gifted, I long to quote every line. The mystery is taken to a whole new level of technospeak artistry, and wonderfully witty, like John Kennedy Toole if he'd written a mystery novel and did metha lot of it. The warmth of the character seeps through in Dewey Decimal's love for a devastated New York and still the city sings. The New York Public Library should put up a plaque to the most original PI since Marlowe. OCD never seemed so compelling. Loved itand then some. What a writer." --Ken Bruen, author of The Guards "I'm a sucker for a postapocalyptic setting, and Nathan Larson's is a doozy; but the real gold here is the voice. I could listen to this guy all day. If you loved The Dewey Decimal System, you'll love this one too. If you didn't love The Dewey Decimal System, it's because you didn't read it. That's okay, you can start here. Thank me later." --SJ Rozan, Edgar Awardwinning author of Ghost Hero "The Nervous System is an armed-to-the-teeth, punch-in-the-guts, post-apocalyptic page turner. You’ll be afraid to put it down." --Maggie Estep, author of Hex After a series of large-scale terrorist attacks, New York City is reduced to a shadow of its former self. As the city struggles to dig itself out of the wreckage, a nameless, obsessive-compulsive veteran with a spotty memory, a love for literature, and a strong if unique moral code has taken up residence at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. Dubbed "Dewey Decimal" for his desire to reorganize the library's stock, he gets by as bagman and muscle for unscrupulous politicians and underworld figuresas detailed in the first book in this series, The Dewey Decimal System. In The Nervous System, Decimal, attempting to clean up loose ends after the violent events in the first book, stumbles upon information concerning the gruesome murder of a prostitute and a prominent US senator's involvement. Immediately he finds himself chasing ghosts and fighting for his life, pursued by Blackwater-style private military contractors and the ever-present specter of his own past. Decimal

The Nervous System (Akashic Urban Surreal)

Named a Pick of the Week for the week of February 29th by Publishers Weekly "Grouped under three headings, the 13 stories in this outstanding entry in Akashic's noir series capture the gloomy underside of Sweden's capital, portraying the hopelessness of those trapped in what Larson and Edenborg in their introduction call the city that devours your soul." --Publishers Weekly, Starred review "Coedited by local authors Larson and Edenborg, this superb sampling of Swedish crime writing talent, some of whose work has been translated into English for the first time here, will be appreciated by fans of Stieg Larsson's 'Millennium' trilogy and Jens Lapidus's Easy Money; they will enjoy getting to know these authors, who write about Stockholm's dark side." --Library Journal "Akashic's multivolume Noir series returns to Scandinavia, focusing this time on the capital city of Sweden, a country that is famously neutral in time of war but is also a large-scale dealer in arms....Another worthy entry in this globe-trotting mystery series." --Booklist "Larson and Edenborg manage to unearth a dark side to a city that is verdant, clean, and surrounded by crystalline water....Stockholm may not be Marseille, but Larson and Edenborg's contributors show that even a verdant place with socialized medicine can have its seamy side." --Kirkus Reviews "The series offers the best of bite-sized crime stories from all over the world--you can't go wrong!" --Book Riot "On the heels of editions set in Copenhagen and Helsinki comes Stockholm Noir, edited by Nathan Larson and Carl-Michael Edenborg with a predictably discerning eye for stories that wring suspense, violence, and worry from social and political issues percolating in a given milieu." --Village Voice Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Brand-new stories by: Unni Drougge, Inger Edelfeldt, Carl-Michael Edenborg, Åke Edwardson, Torbjörn Elensky, Inger Frimansson, Carl Johan De Geer, Martin Holmén, Nathan Larson, Malte Persson, Anna-Karin Selberg, Johan Theorin, and Lina Wolff. From the introduction by Nathan Larson &amp; Carl-Michael Edenborg: "To the tourist, the city of Stockholm appears a shimmering dream. Laid out on a series of islands, it is verdant, clean, and surrounded by crystalline water. On paper, Stockholm is paradise. And in some respects, it truly is. But in most respects, it is anything but... In Stockholm Noir, the city is presented as a gaping maw ready to devour your soul should you wander down the wrong alley...Everywhere is noir. Even, and especially, in a paradise like Sweden, where the citizen is given every tool to go out and become a great success but is paradoxically held to an almost subliminal expectation to fall in line...and never shine so brightly that you disturb your neighbor... In this anthology it's our aim to showcase the darker, grittier, more intense world of Swedish noir fiction. Here the dangers lurking beneath the IKEA lifestyle are given free rein, and words are given to the ambivalence and despair of a model society."

Stockholm Noir (Akashic Noir)

Short Stories & Anthologies

"This final installment of the Dewey Decimal trilogy capably stands alone as a quirky, sparkly read that will embiggen your cerebellum." --Library Journal "Larson treats the English language as a sort of toy to play with and use for experimentation; language is not just used to tell the story, in other words, but is a part of the story, an extension of its narrator, Dewey Decimal, one of the more offbeat characters in fiction. A fitting conclusion to a unique and memorable trilogy." --Booklist "A sharp and satisfying conclusion to one of the most unique hard-boiled arcs in recent memory." --Kirkus Reviews "Dewey is an unlikely hero, a gimpy, smart-mouthed loner, obsessed with a brand-name hand sanitizer. His indomitable spirit and his distinctive ghetto-infused, educated patter give Larson's series its unique and spicy character." --Publishers Weekly "The final book in Larson's compulsively readable, uniquely strange Dewey Decimal trilogy, The Immune System features Larson's patented ability to play with words and sentence structure in a way that mirrors the disorienting events happening in the plot. And yet, because the reader is in such good hands with Larson, it doesn't matter if everything is clear right from the start. Just trust that Larson knows where he's taking you, and enjoy the slightly surreal, definitely funny ride." --The L Magazine "The final book in the Dewey Decimal System trilogy, in which Dewey deals with dirty politicians, civilian outcasts, Saudi, royals, and the truth about the cataclysmic events in NYC. I adored these books, and it thrills me to know the author is also a member of Shudder to Think." --Book Riot "The final installment of one of the finest (and weirdest) thriller trilogies ever....There is physical action aplenty in this breathtaking novel--fistfights, shoot-outs, bombs, etc.--but during the finale of Larson's glorious trilogy, we learn that in the end, the only struggle that ever mattered was Decimal's struggle with himself." --Mystery Scene "[An] engrossing concluding entry in Larson's Dewey Decimal trilogy....Larson's version of New York City is vividly...realized, almost becoming a character in itself, and his fast-paced narrative style makes the most of both his post-apocalyptic setting and his brain-scrambled protagonist." --Manhattan Book Review "A perfect synthesis of poetic observation melded with streetwise patois, percussive and rhythmic....It’s quite a feat to write a dystopia that is fun and takes the reader to a better place for a while. Larson does this." --Razorcake The Immune System is the explosive final installment in the Dewey Decimal trilogy. Picking up months after the events of The Nervous System, Dewey finds himself running dirty operations for the crooked Senator Howard. When Dewey is tasked with disrupting unrest from a growing group of outcast civilians, and simultaneously given the assignment of protecting a pair of Saudi royals, he is forced to look within and make some impossible choices. Ultimately, this puts him at odds with his benefactor and the powers that be. In the course of the novel, we learn the true nature of the 2/14 cataclysm that decimated New York City, and by the end of it, Dewey must choose whether or not to face his own past. He must also decide if he is to be part of the elite control system, or if he's willing to commit himself to the unknown, without the protections he enjoys in the good favor of the landlords of the new New Order.

The Immune System: A Dewey Decimal novel (Akashic Urban Surreal)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

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

Books by Larson, Nathan

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

The Dewey Decimal System (Akashic Urban Surreal)

The Nervous System (Akashic Urban Surreal)

Stockholm Noir (Akashic Noir)

The Immune System: A Dewey Decimal novel (Akashic Urban Surreal)