Dryco

Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award At once a biting satire and a taut sci-fi thriller, Elvissey is the story of Isabel and John, a troubled couple who are sent through a "window" from the year 2033 to a strangely altered 1954. They are on a desperate mission to kidnap a young Elvis Presley and bring him back to the present day to serve the powerful conglomerate Dryco as a ready-made cult leader. But when Elvis proves to be a reluctant messiah, things do not work out quite as planned.

It's 1968, and Walter Bullitt, part-time US government freelancer and collector of "race records," stays busy testing new psychotropics on himself and unsuspecting citizens. Walter's conscience never interferes with his work-until he's asked to help sabotage Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign. The ghosts who've moved into his apartment aren't much comfort. Then two outré femmes fatales show up and frog-march Walter out of Max's Kansas City before the Velvet Underground can finish their first song. The ladies have a mission. They need to save New York-both his and theirs.

In a decaying and violent near-future New York, the remnants of civic order are maintained with brute force by the conglomerate Dryco. But even Dryco is falling apart from the inside. Seamus O'Malley is bodyguard and confidant to Mister Dryden, the CEO, and an admirer of Dryden's personal femme fatale, Avalon. But what begins as a simple case of unrequited love quickly becomes a desperate chance for survival as corporate intrigue, murderous family rivalries, and perverse subcultures take over O'Malley's life.

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year: In a dystopian future New York, a girl's diary chronicles her life as society begins to crumble around her. Until recently, Lola Hart's biggest problem was her annoying little sister. Now the twelve-year-old girl's comfortable life is slowly falling apart. Her mother is a teacher, but she's lost her job. Her father is a writer, but no one is buying his scripts. When the family can no longer afford either their Manhattan apartment or the tuition for Lola's exclusive private school, they are forced to radically change their lifestyle. They move to a small apartment near Harlem, and Lola enrolls in public school-but the Harts aren't alone in their troubles. Riots, fires, TB outbreaks, roaming gangs, and civil unrest have become commonplace, threatening the very fabric of life in New York. In the pages of her diary, Lola documents her family's attempts to adjust to a city and a country that are spinning out of control. Jack Womack, a winner of the Philip K. Dick Award, has been compared to both William Gibson and Kurt Vonnegut for his vivid prose and unbridled imagination.