Koh-I-Noor - by Michael Eddy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Written with great humour and self-awareness, Koh-i-Noor is a satirical coming-of-age tale about a well-intentioned young man determined to change the world.

It's 2011 on Nova Scotia's South Shore, and Sean Lohan is at a crossroads. The son of Colorado Buddhists, Sean wonders if he should accept his parents' offer to join their natural cosmetics company or venture out on his own. When an art history professor opens Sean's eyes to the contradictions of capitalism, he realizes he can't avoid or transcend his own personal dilemmas and instead chooses to face them head-on.

Sean's ultimate decision to found a social enterprise leads him to China. At the same time, his close friend Jerry becomes entangled in a Google-like tech enterprise in California, and his girlfriend Samantha pursues her own high-minded interventions in Cuba--each path leading to increasingly risky and complex outcomes.

In the roving literary style of Thomas Pynchon and Mathias Énard, this enthralling debut offers readers a fast-paced adventure through the diverging nuances of economics, spirituality, and extraction. In a period of increasing uncertainty, Koh-i-Noor is a timely doomscroll through four decades of globalization, generational change, and the search for one's own values.

Review Quotes

"For decades, the story of western Buddhism has been a tale of awed discovery by the post-war generations that first popularized it. In recent decades, those who grew up with the consequences of that discovery have begun to tell their own stories. With care, insight, and rich prose, Eddy explores intersections of metaphysical wonder, spiritual alienation, capitalism, and technology in a multigenerational saga of interconnected narratives. At once a bildungsroman and a family drama, Koh-i-Noor traverses the long shadow of the New Age and emerges on the other side, perhaps not unscathed, but clearly undaunted." --Oisín Curran, author of Blood Fable

"A mesmerizing portrait of human longing, at once sweepingly global and intimately human. Eddy has his hands on many levers at once--political, spiritual, cultural, and even entrepreneurial--and somehow manages to command them all with dauntless energy, wisdom, and finesse. A brilliantly polychromatic novel." --Rob Benvie, author of The Damagers

About the Author

MICHAEL EDDY studied art in Halifax and Frankfurt and spent five years in Beijing. His writing has appeared in various publications, including C Magazine, esse, and Peripheral Review. Born in New York City and raised in Halifax, he now lives in Montreal. Koh-i-Noor is his debut novel.