Absurdist Humor

Enter the wonderfully weird, always uncomfortable, side-splittingly funny world of The Terrifying Realm of the Possible, where your worst fears of who you are or might become are always just around the corner. In these masterful short stories from the singular mind of the actor and comedian Brett Gelman, you’ll meet five individuals, each navigating a uniquely strange stage of life.

A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.

A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea - and his wife's eBay resale business - ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams.

Maintenu en parfait état de conservation par les eaux glaciales de la mer du Nord, repêché par un chalutier, puis décongelé, Napoléon Bonaparte revient à la vie au moment des attentats djihadistes de Paris, juste à temps pour sauver le monde... Une fable loufoque et jubilatoire par un auteur qui s'est imposé, en quelques années, dans les meilleures ventes, avec plus de 600 000 exemplaires vendus.

An anthropologist and his daughter travel to Kermunkachunk, the capitol of Chalazia, to conduct research for an ethnography on the Chalazian Mafia Faction (a splinter group of the Chalazian Children's Theater). The book takes place over the course of a night at the Bar Pulpo, Kermunkachunk's #1 spoken-word karaoke bar, where conversations are actually being read from multiple karaoke screens arrayed around the barroom. Moreover, it's Thursday, "Father/Daughter Nite", when the bar is frequented by actual fathers and daughters as well as couples cosplaying fathers and daughters.

Tutto può accadere nel bar sotto il mare. Un bar in cui tutti vorremmo capitare, una notte, per ascoltare i racconti del barista, dell'uomo col cappello, dell'uomo con la gardenia, della sirena, del marinaio, dell'uomo invisibile, della vamp e degli altri misteriosi avventori. Sompazzo, il paese più bugiardo del mondo - Gaspard Ouralphe, il più grande cuoco di Francia - Il verme mangiaparole e l'incredibile storia del capitano Charlemont - La disfida di Salsiccia - Il dittatore pentito - Kraputnyk, il marziano innamorato - Priscilla Mapple e il delitto della II C.

I was at my wit's end. I'd had enough of this job, this life, and my relationship had broken up. Should I eat chocolate, or go to India, or fall in love? Then I had a revelation: Why not do all three, in that order? And so it was that I embarked on a journey that was segmented into three parts and was then made into a major motion picture. Later, I woke up on an airplane with a hole in my face and a really bad hangover. I was ushered brusquely off the plane by my parents who took me to a rehab.

At the turn of the 20th century, as he composes a treatise on melancholy, Jacov Reinhardt sets off from his small Croatian village in search of his hero and unwitting mentor, Emiliano Gomez Carrasquilla, who is rumored to have disappeared into the South American jungle - "not lost, mind you, but retired." Jacov's narcissistic preoccupation with melancholy consumes him, and as he desperately recounts the myth of his journey to his trusted but ailing scribe, hope for an encounter with the lost philosopher who holds the key to Jacov's obsession seems increasingly unlikely.

Societal commentary just got interesting. Listen to this funny, racy, exaggerated take on a man running for office and the woman chosen to help him. Peppered with satire of the elite and commentary on class warfare, this quirky political humor story explores power struggles between the sexes. Perfect if you want to chuckle and think. This tale is one helluva ride - a sexy little snicker.

A la protagonista de esta historia le diagnostican una enfermedad extrañísima y le dan 20% de posibilidades de sobrevivir. ¿Qué decide hacer con los últimos seis meses que le quedan? Escribir una novela. Empieza a planificarla y entiende que para tener material para escribirla necesita vivir nuevas experiencias: probar MDMA, robar, tirarse en parapente y tener sexo sadomasoquista. Pero no todo es tan sencillo. Entre desoladores mails a su ex, delirantes reacciones de su familia, una prima que le pide un favor inesperado y reflexiones sobre el feminismo, la trama estalla en un arco narrativo imposible de prever.

In this audacious and honest debut, a college student’s life in New York City serves as a satirical endorsement of modern life everywhere. Collin finds the self-service kiosks at McDonald’s consistent and calming in an otherwise chaotic world. He stands before one, swiping through the interactive menu as a way to ground himself more firmly in his reality—a reality of video games, posting furniture on Craigslist, and chatting with strangers on Discord. He mutters, “No man is an island,” and then realizes he hasn't spoken out loud since he last said, “semipermeable membrane."

Il romanzo narra del giovane Mattia che, a seguito di una fortunata vicenda, e dopo una cospicua vincita al casinò, decide di seguire il destino che lo aveva fatto...

Sidney Geeder, King of Mortgages, wants nothing more than to cash in his lucrative company stock and quit his job, but his dreams are threatened by the disappearance of Eggs Igino, the only possible man who can replace him.

Tre racconti fra i più conosciuti di Calvino. Divertenti e ironici tutti, ma pregni di elementi di riflessione sulle moderne idiosincrasie, tic e tabù. Con L'ultimo canale del 1984 la televisione e la confusione fra realtà ed apparenza entrano decisamente da protagonisti nella letteratura italiana.

Il fu Mattia Pascal è un celebre romanzo di Luigi Pirandello che apparve dapprima a puntate sulla rivista "Nuova Antologia" nel 1904 e pubblicato, nello stesso anno, in volume. Fu il primo grande successo di Pirandello. Il libro è seguito da un commento dello stesso Pirandello , aggiunto in seguito.

In fuga da un matrimonio infelice, il bibliotecario Mattia Pascal si ritrova a Montecarlo con una grossa somma vinta al casinò. Sulla via del ritorno a casa, scopre però dal giornale che al paese tutti lo credono morto. Decide così di approfittarne per cambiare vita, con una nuova identità. Antieroe grottesco, il protagonista racconta con umorismo le vicende che l'hanno portato a diventare il "fu" di se stesso.

Yang Wei wakes to find himself still a patient at the hospital. Somehow, he’s aged decades overnight and is confined to the geriatric ward on a massive Hospital ship as it floats along a bloodred sea full of unsightly things. But human remains and sea nymphs are perhaps nothing compared to the goings-on belowdecks.

En un inesperado y crítico momento de sus vidas, diez de los más ilustres pensadores de la cultura occidental son atraídos por una extraña luz que los deposita en el año 2015 y en la cubierta de un enorme yate de lujo: el Utopía. Algo inexplicable ha sucedido y por si fuera poco la tripulación del yate se reduce a Jenny, una desenvuelta exprostituta encargada de realizar las funciones de cocinera y asistenta. Sócrates, Aristóteles, Aquino, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre y Ortega han sido secuestrados.

Tras un proceso de selección en apariencia sencillo, Diego Pirita comienza a trabajar como recepcionista en un hotel de paso. Las primeras instrucciones que recibe dejan una cosa en claro: sin importar lo que ocurra, una de las habitaciones debe mantenerse siempre desocupada para recibir a un cliente distinguido. Podría llegar en los próximos minutos o podría llegar dentro de muchos años. Lo único seguro es que no avisará.

The Late Mattia Pascal (Italian: Il fu Mattia Pascal) is a 1904 novel by Luigi Pirandello. It is one of his best-known works and was his first major treatment of the theme of the mask. The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage.