The Publicist by J.G. Sandom
Originally released under pen name Veronica C. Wright (1996, 2011)
Publisher: Cornucopia Press (May 15, 2024)
ISBN-10: ‎0997673974
Edition: First
Language: ‎English
Print Length: ‎420 pages

When successful PR executive, Ben Wright, discovers his 17-year-old daughter Nicki has just had an abortion, he resolves to take her away on a European vacation. They travel to Venice, where Nicki becomes enamored with a tall, handsome young minister from the Islamic Socialist country of Kush, in the throes of a famine and civil war against an American-educated, pro-Democracy guerrilla leader named Omo.

Nicki eventually runs away from her father and journeys to the remote North African nation. But when Wright pursues her, traveling deep into the heart of the Sahara, he is captured by the guerrillas, and forced to employ his PR skills in ways he never imagined.

A beautifully written and powerful black comedy that dramatizes the impact of today’s social media on politics and contemporary culture.

Take a 21st century version of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network, add a dash of Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog, plus a jigger of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, and you have The Publicist, a tightly paced coming-of-age story — for both Nicki and her father — that eerily anticipated the Arab Spring, and delivers an absurdist look at how today’s top news stories are packaged for consumption.

Like The Blue Men, this black comedy is part of the Tuareg collection, books the author has written that feature the Berbers of the Sahara.

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