Mañana - by William Hjortsberg (Paperback)

About the Book

"All Tod remembers when he wakes up next to a dead prostitute is that he had his first shot of heroin the night before. He and his wife, Linda, were partying with their new neighbors, a trio of parole violators who fled to Mexico after robbing a Beverly Hills jewelry store. Now the place is empty, stripped clean except for Tod's hunting knife, which is covered in blood. Did he kill the woman, or was he left behind as the fall guy? Convinced that his junkie friends abducted Linda to keep her from talking to the police, Tod buys a gun and prepares to do whatever it takes to get his wife back before he makes a run for the border"--Page 4 of cover.

Book Synopsis

The life of an American hippie in Mexico is upended by a gang of ex-cons in this thriller full of "wild surprises" (Carl Hiaasen).

All Tod remembers when he wakes up next to a dead prostitute is that he had his first shot of heroin the night before. He and his wife, Linda, were partying with their new neighbors, a trio of parole violators who fled to Mexico after robbing a Beverly Hills jewelry store. Now the place is empty, stripped clean except for Tod's hunting knife, which is covered in blood. Did he kill the woman, or was he left behind as the fall guy? Convinced that his junkie friends abducted Linda to keep her from talking to the police, Tod buys a gun and prepares to do whatever it takes to get his wife back before he makes a run for the border.

Review Quotes

"While fun might not be the word normally used to describe a story with blood, smoking guns, knives, drugs, death, and heartbreak, you're going to have to trust me on this one. A trip. William Hjortsberg does it again." --Michael Keaton, Golden Globe Award-winning actor

"A kick-ass thriller that moves through Mexico like a scalded sidewinder. As always, Hjortsberg delivers wild surprises, cool chatter, and raw, unforgettable scenes." --Carl Hiaasen

"Hjortsberg gives us a deft, deadly no-let-up narrative in edged prose, sharp as a stropped razor. This one cuts deep so brace yourself." --William F. Nolan, coauthor of Logan's Run

"William Hjortsberg's Mañana is a trip--one filled with suspense, blood, and laughs." --Jeff Bridges, Academy Award-winning actor

"Terrific writing. Wild characters. Dark humor. Can't-stop reading. Brilliant . . . Bang-bang." --Peter Fonda, cowriter and star of Easy Rider

"Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Jack Kerouac, maybe a little Pynchon--that's the lineage leading to William Hjortsberg and Mañana, his nifty tale of murder and young love amid the dark and wilted days of flower power. If you remember the sixties, some say, it means you weren't there. Hjortsberg was, and he does, and often it wasn't pretty." --David Quammen

"Alternately hilarious and plain scary . . . [Hjortsberg's] prose is finely wrought, his drama perfect." --Peter Bowen

"A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this book. . . . Mañana shows that this writer is still at the height of his powers." --Peter Blauner, author of Slipping into Darkness and Slow Motion Riot

"Terrific . . . One of a kind . . . I've never read anything remotely like it." --Stephen King on Falling Angel

About the Author

William Hjortsberg (1941-2017) was an acclaimed author of novels and screenplays. Born in New York City, Hjortsberg's first success came with Alp (1969), an offbeat story of an Alpine skiing village, which Hjortsberg's friend Thomas McGuane called, "quite possibly the finest comic novel written in America." In the 1970s, Hjortsberg wrote two science fiction novels, Gray Matters (1971) and Symbiography (1973), as well as Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974), a comic jab at the macho world of bullfighting. His best-known work is Falling Angel (1978), a hard-boiled occult mystery. In 1987 the book was adapted into a film titled Angel Heart, which starred Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke. Hjortsberg's work also includes Jubilee Hitchhiker (2012), a biography of Richard Brautigan, American writer and voice of 1960s counterculture.