Pushkin Press

Last Acts - Alexander Sammartino

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION'A rollicking satire on contemporary America' James Naughtie'A magnificently humane book about losers' Irish Times'Taut, energetic, tender' George Saunders'Brilliance and originality shine out from every page' Jenny OffillDavid Rizzo has been waiting for a sign from above. Owner of a failing firearms store in a sun-bleached corner of Arizona, he's drowning in debt and desperate for a word from his estranged adult son, Nick. When Nick is brought back from a near-fatal heroin overdose, Rizzo believes there's reason for hope: if Nick can return from the dead, so can his business.The flailing father-son duo embark on a marketing ploy to create the most compelling television commercial for a gun emporium the world has ever seen. But their relationship is fragile, mired in things left unsaid, and when Rizzo unknowingly supplies the weapon in a school shooting, a crash of hijinks, hope and disaster ensues.MORE PRAISE FOR LAST ACTS:'A magnificent sentence writer' New York Times Book Review'Precise, funny and will break your heart all at once' Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah'An astonishing baller of a book so pitch perfect in voice (Tony Soprano meets Samuel Beckett)' Marry Karr'Big hearted and hilarious' Dana Spiotta'Raucous, irreverent' Chicago Review of Books

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