Bruno Dante

When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante's Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86'd, Chump Change follows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family-and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet. Chump Change is "an honest misfit's view of America far too few know." (John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant's Woman).

In Mooch, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante is finally sober, and has become the best boiler-room salesman in L.A. But Dan Fante's anti-hero can't keep a good thing going. Leaping headfirst into an impossibly destructive love-hate relationship with the addictive ex-stripper Jimmi Valiente, Bruno finds it's not long at all before his world begins to spiral out of control…again.With prose that seeps with brutal aggression and biting wit, Fante portrays the unavoidable self-destruction of a man whose inner demons won't allow him to live within the limitations of society.

Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86'd, Dan Fante's Spitting Off Tall Buildings is the story of aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, who leaves sunny Los Angeles for cold, hard New York City. Falling into a string of temporary, dead-end jobs, punctuated by meaningless affairs and intense drinking, Bruno has almost had enough when a sudden event offers him the opportunity to get his life back on track-unless screwing up, like drinking, proves a habit too difficult to shake. In prose steeped with rage and surprising humor, Fante presents a point of view of America that only the true outlaw will recognize.

In Los Angeles, struggling telemarketer-writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante is jobless again. The publication of his book of short stories has been put off indefinitely. Searching the want ads for a gig, he finds a chauffeur job. When Bruno calls the number in the ad, he discovers the boss is his former Manhattan employer David Koffman, who is opening a West Coast branch of his thriving limo service. Koffman hires Bruno as resident manager of Dav-Ko Hollywood under one condition: he must remain sober. But instant business success triggers an abrupt booze-and-blackout-soaked downward spiral for Bruno, forcing him to confront his own madness as he struggles to keep his old familiar demons from getting the best of him yet again.