Sewer, Gas & Electric - Public Works Trilogy Grove Press by Matt Ruff Paperback

About the Book

As the world's wealthiest man, Harry Gant, erects a sky-high building, bizarre life forms wage a war in the city's ever-expanding sewer systems, led by Joan Fine, Gant's ex-wife, who is working incognito as a heroic commando.

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times Bestselling author of Lovecraft Country, now an HBO series.

Sewer, Gas & Electric is the exuberant follow-up to Matt Ruff's cult classic and critically acclaimed debut Fool on the Hill.

High above Manhattan android and human steelworkers are constructing a new Tower of Babel for billionaire Harry Gant, as a monument to humanity's power to dream. In the festering sewers below a darker game is afoot: a Wall Street takeover artist has been murdered, and Gant's crusading ex-wife, Joan Fine, has been hired to find out why. The year is 2023, and Ayn Rand has been resurrected and bottled in a hurricane lamp to serve as Joan's assistant; an eco-terrorist named Philo Dufrense travels in a pink-and-green submarine designed by Howard Hughes; a Volkswagen Beetle is possessed by the spirit of Abbie Hoffman; Meisterbrau, a mutant great white shark, is running loose in the sewers beneath Times Square; and a one-armed 181-year-old Civil War veteran joins Joan and Ayn in their quest for the truth. All of whom, and many more besides, are caught up in a vast conspiracy involving Walt Disney, J. Edgar Hoover, and a mob of homicidal robots.

Review Quotes

"Ruff is a protean talent. . . . Very much in the absurdist tradition of Pynchon, Heller, Robbins, and Vonnegut." -The Washington Post "A dizzying rampage . . . will leave readers gasping for breath, mainly from laughter." -The San Francisco Chronicle "A careening riot. . . . Ruff's second novel can only enhance his reputation as a fantasy writer with imagination to burn." -Kirkus Reviews "This exuberantly silly tale will find an audience among admirers of Steve Erickson and David Foster Wallace." -Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Matt Ruff is the author of three novels, Fool on the Hill, Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy, and Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, Lisa Gold.