Siege of Comedians - by Susan Daitch (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the first piece, an American forensic sculptor, reconstructing the faces of three victims receives a midnight, visit from a man who threatens her life unless she alters the faces she's almost completed. The twists and turns of the mystery lead her to a new life, working with forensic archeologists at a site near the Prater amusement park in Vienna. In the second section, an accent coach discovers that the man implicated in the death of his girlfriend in 1970s Buenos Aires was once a censor and Assistant Minister of Propaganda in Vienna during World War II. When bodies start turning up under the former Propaganda offices, some date from the war period--but others are much older, their origins going back to the Ottoman siege of Vienna. In the final arc, in the aftermath of the last battle between the Austrians and the Turks, a local businesswoman finds three displaced women from Istanbul--former wives of the sultan--wandering in Vienna and gives them shelter in her brothel, located on the site of the future Ministry of Propaganda. Connected across time by intersecting crimes and themes of language, cultural assimilation, and nationalist conflicts, Siege of Comedians, part political thriller, part comic noir, reflects on aspects of the current refugee crisis, human trafficking, and identity."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"Ebullient ... Daitch finds stimulating connections and writes with sharp irony and joy. This offers delights on every page." --Publishers Weekly
Award-winning author Susan Daitch returns with Siege of Comedians, a novel in triptych told through interconnected narrative threads pulled taut by linked crimes.

In the first piece, an American forensic sculptor, reconstructing the faces of three victims receives a midnight, visit from a man who threatens her life unless she alters the faces she's almost completed. The twists and turns of the mystery lead her to a new life, working with forensic archeologists at a site near the Prater amusement park in Vienna.

In the second section, an accent coach discovers that the man implicated in the death of his girlfriend in 1970s Buenos Aires was once a censor and Assistant Minister of Propaganda in Vienna during World War II. When bodies start turning up under the former Propaganda offices, some date from the war period--but others are much older, their origins going back to the Ottoman siege of Vienna.

In the final arc, in the aftermath of the last battle between the Austrians and the Turks, a local businesswoman finds three displaced women from Istanbul--former wives of the sultan--wandering in Vienna and gives them shelter in her brothel, located on the site of the future Ministry of Propaganda.

Connected across time by intersecting crimes and themes of language, cultural assimilation, and nationalist conflicts, Siege of Comedians, part political thriller, part comic noir, reflects on aspects of the current refugee crisis, human trafficking, and identity.

Review Quotes

"A moving and powerful work of art that examines mystery, identity, and displacement. Like DeLillo and Spiotta at their best, Susan Daitch is a master of style here, threading the atmospheric with the suspenseful, the strange with the mundane, and she manages to bring everything together in the end with a big payoff. One of the most exciting, original writers working today." --Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed

"Daitch's singular genius is to take from its grimed and cobwebbed neglect what might be called the palimpsest of history and selectively restore its lines and erasures until, to our horror and delight, we begin to recognize ourselves. Siege of Comedians is a brilliant and enthralling novel, a noir diamond reflective of our collective dark history and formed under the weight of a million missing-persons cases." --Eugene Lim, author of Dear Cyborgs

"An ambitious novel ... this book charms, intrigues, and bewilders." --Kirkus Reviews

"Siege of Comedians is a book for our age and beyond, ranking in the bright realm of Ishiguro, Ondaatje, Rhys. Daitch sparks her reader with concerns deep and global, her sentences incredible as a panther's run through beautiful and brutal fields." --Edie Meidav, author of Crawl Space and Future Love Paradise

"Brimming with mystery and graced by Daitch's assured, wry touch, Siege of Comedians is a New York novel for the twenty-first century." --John Keene, author of Counternarratives

"It's always a delight to discover a voice as original as Susan Daitch's."--Salman Rushdie

"One of the most intelligent and attentive writers at work in the U.S."--David Foster Wallace