FEELguide is pleased to be part of the promotion for CHOPSTICKS, the new novel by authors Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. Apart from the fascinating storyline, the book itself is groundbreaking in its form, and was born out of the desire to tell a story with multiple medias, without losing the fundamental truths which make reading fiction an emotional human experience. Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondorous Life Of Oscar Wao) is just one of many prominent literary figures praising this fascinating new work: “Like the young artistic love it describes, ‘CHOPSTICKS’ is beautiful and strange and haunting. The story’s crooked path is made luminous by its extraordinary images. ‘CHOPSTICKS’ is like that one ex-lover you never shake off — the one that was a mystery — beautifully distilled.” CHOPSTICKS is much more than a conventional novel: it is an app, a website, a collage of original drawings, objects, text, sounds, and video. It is a love story. It is a mystery. Read it. View it. Experience it. The following is a synopsis of the story:
Glory is a piano prodigy. After her mother died, she retreated into her music. Her father raised her with the goal of playing sold out shows at Carnegie Hall and across the globe. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to Frank, who moves in next door. She loses herself in his paintings and drawings, mix CD’s and late night IM conversations. Soon, Frank becomes both her connection to the world and her escape from reality. Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song Chopsticks; F and G notes moving closer together, and farther apart. Now, Glory has disappeared. But nothing is what it seems. And we must decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along…
The novel’s digital format will still allow you to encounter the lives of Frank and Glory, the characters that fill the pages, but the additional videos, songs and digital links will create a new novel experience — one that is geometric instead of linear. Co-author Rodrigo Corral runs Rodrigo Corral Studio and is the Creative Director at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has designed covers for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz and the bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk among many others. He also designed the New York Times bestselling books Decoded by Jay-Z, Classy by Derek Blasberg, and Influence by Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and lectured around the country. Through it all, he remains deeply committed to transcending the visual possibilities in art, in culture, and throughout the universe. You can learn much more about Rodrigo’s work by visiting RodrigoCorral.com. Co-author Jessica Anthony’s debut novel, The Convalescent (McSweeney’s / Grove 2009), was an ALA Adult Notable Book, a B&N Discover Great New Writers selection, an Editor’s Choice in The San Francisco Chronicle, and has been taught in several universities across the country. Her short fiction can be found in Best New American Voices, Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, New American Writing and elsewhere. She was raised amidst the farms and bowling alleys of Upstate New York, and currently teaches at Bates College and Southern New Hampshire University.
“Spellbinding and inventive, this title will attract teens and compel them to reread and revisit each clue to the hauntingly ambiguous ending.”
– School Library Journal, Starred Review
“A book that plays with the boundaries between novel, graphic novel, scrapbook story, and multiplatform blitz…Daring on all fronts.”
– Booklist, Starred Review
“…seeing deceits and red herrings laid bare in photographs and documents, rather than reading about them, makes the book’s punches hit hard.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Eerie and edgy – and effective as Poe.”
– Kirkus
“Pictures are not only worth a thousand words in “Chopsticks.” In hands as talented as Anthony’s and Corral’s, they’re just as emotionally resonant.”
– LA Times
“Reading ‘CHOPSTICKS’ is like watching people kiss in the street: it’s private, it’s beautiful, it’s lonely, it’s wild, it’s secret, it’s everywhere and you can’t look away.”
– Daniel Handler, author of ‘Why We Broke Up’
To enter the CHOPSTICKS experience and check out images from the book and much, much more be sure to visit the official website by CLICKING HERE. You can also head over to iTunes to download the CHOPSTICKS App. TO WIN YOUR OWN COPY OF THE NOVEL, AS WELL AS A $25 iTunes GIFT CARD TO GET A FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE CHOPSITICKS APP SIMPLY “LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK BY CLICKING HERE AND POST ON OUR WALL THE WORDS: “Count me in for the CHOPSTICKS giveaway!” IF TWITTER’S YOUR PREFERRED NETWORK YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER BY CLICKING HERE AND TWEET US THE SAME TEXT. THE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN RANDOMLY (NOTE: IF YOU SEND A FB POST AS WELL AS A TWEET, YOU WILL DOUBLE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING). WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED EARLY NEXT WEEK. GOOD LUCK AND THANKS FOR READING FEELguide!
