WINNER OF THE 2007 STARCHERONE FICTION PRIZE

Following the structure of the ancient Greek classic, THE LOST BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY features alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original Odyssey and, equipped as well with a faux-authoritative scholarly introduction, richly carries off the illusion of being the lost ur-text of Homer's masterpiece. Justifying comparison with the great postmodern fictive hoaxes of Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, and Robert Coover, this is a one-of-a-kind book destined to become a classic in its own right.

"Mason's book is incredibly impressive.
Beautifully written, intelligent, war-inflected in all the most ancient and contemporary ways, filled with all kinds of pleasures. An ambitious feast!"
- Carole Maso, author of Ava and The Art Lover

"A stirring revelation:
Zachary Mason's astounding glosses of The Odyssey plunge us into an unforeseeable and hypnotic dimension of fiction. Of the three possible interpretations of the work that he proposes -- Homeric stories anciently reproduced by recombining their components, a Theosophist dream of abstract mathematics, and pure illusion (that is, it was all made up by him) -- the result is one and the same. This enthralling book is his doing, whether as translator, conjuror, or author. I vote for number three."
- Harry Mathews, author of My Life in CIA

"That each story is all stories, that the tale foretells the teller's life, that the poem kills its hero, that one word will suffice, that all times are today, that everything changes, that nothing changes­-from these riddles Zachary Mason crafts his book. It encodes the astonishments others promised to decipher, the secret of secrets, the last meaning. We feel its mysteries within our grasp, just a page away. Even this is prefigured.
This is the book I always meant to write."
- R. M. Berry, author of Frank and Leonardo's Horse

Zachary Mason is a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. He got his B.S. at Harvey Mudd and his Ph.D. at Brandeis. He works for a Silicon Valley start-up. In recent months he has had short stories accepted by Pleiades and The Journal of Literary Imagination. This is his first novel. He is currently working on another novel about the mythology and culture of AI's.

ISBN 0-9788811-5-X. ISBN-13 978-0-9788811-5-3.
Print run: 5,000 Price: $16.00
Official release: March 15, 2008
Contact: Ted Pelton, Starcherone Books, PO Box 303, Buffalo, NY 14201. Phone: 716-885-2726. Fax: 716-885-2726. ted@starcherone.com
DISTRIBUTED TO THE TRADE THROUGH ATLAS BOOKS.
Book tour: New York, Seattle, San Diego, Portland, Los Angeles, other venues TBA.