Bald New World - Softcover

Gorgeous language choices combine with Nick's philosophical journey of personal discovery to create a deceptively deep story. --- Listed as a Publishers Weekly's BEST SUMMER BOOK, April 2014 Bald New World is a hypnotic, surreal, and insightful novel, blending Blade Runner and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to create a dark, funny, and captivating story. One of the best books I've read this year.--Richard Thomas If you took the world building of Philip K. Dick, and added in the gritty reality and humor of Haruki Murakami, with a touch of Aldous Huxley (of course), you would get Bald New World. An emerging voice ... blur the lines between reality and fantasy, leading to a devastating conclusion. --Buzzfeed

From the author of the bestselling United States of Japan, and longlisted for the 2015 Folio Prize, Bald New World is a dark exploration of human vanity in a hairless world. What if you woke up one morning and everyone in the world lost their hair? In Bald New World, that very event happens and overnight, religion, politics, and fashion undergo dramatic shifts. Nick Guan and his friend Larry Chao are a pair of eccentric filmmakers who choose to explore the existential angst of their balding world through cinema. Larry is heir to one of the most lucrative wig companies in the world. Nick is a man who's trying to make sense of the tatters of his American Dream. Taking place throughout China and America, the pair set off on a series of misadventures involving North Korean spies, veterans of an African War, and digital cricket fighters. Their journey leads them to discover some of the darkest secrets behind wig-making and hair in a hairless world.