The Singer's Gun - Hardcover

"I was wowed by it."--Nancy Pearl on NPR's Morning Edition

"The Singer's Gun" begins like a straightforward crime thriller...But Emily St. John Mandel's new novel is something far rarer than this classic noir opening suggests. She introduces us to haunted, often fugitive individuals stranded in places from New York to Italy, from the past to the present. And her book strikes a perfect balance between introspection and action...Mandel skillfully layers and then cunningly exposes these interlocking puzzles, we gradually realize that identity fraud is at the heart of the plot and at the core of these lives...Mandel's readers...will surely appreciate the novel's decidedly grown-up denouement, a fitting conclusion to an eminently satisfying thriller."--The Washington Post Book World

"Mandel's talent is clearly visible from the get-go....The beauty of the novel is that its key truths are those the reader arrives at on his or her own, without the help of a straight-line narrative or a dominating perspective. Instead, Mandel feeds off of our need to make connections, even when the pattern they form doesn't really exist. We start with anxiety and end with it, thrumming in the background for us to listen in - or ignore, at both cost and reward."--The Los Angeles Times

"This is a gripping story, full of moral ambiguities, where deception and betrayal become the norm, and where the expression, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," is lifted to new heights."--St Louis Post-Dispatch

"A tender and astounding tour de force."--Mystery Scene

"False personae become more authentic than those bestowed at birth in Emily St. John Mandel's metaphysical mystery novel The Singer's Gun (Unbridled), about a young man desperate to leave the shady family business and reinvent himself, and the comely illegal immigrant to whom he sells a fake passport."--Vogue.com

"Mandel has managed to write herself under my skin. With a combination of richly imagined characters, heart-stopping suspense, and an unending supply of moral quandaries to ponder philosophically, The Singer's Gun--part thriller, part love story--left me breathless."--Julie McGuire, Internet Review of Books

"This is not a book that's easy to pigeonhole. It's a love story, a thriller, a coming of age novel. It's a keeper in any category and an exception to all the established rules. Find it, buy it and treasure every word of it."--IloveaMystery.com

"A gripping, thoughtful meditation on work, family, and the consequences of major life choices."--Booklist

"An intriguing and suspenseful read that will appeal to those who like mysteries."--Library Journal

"A nail-biting thriller...that manages to both entertain and prompt valuable contemplation of its stickier issues."--BookPage

Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents deal in stolen goods and his first career is a partnership venture with his cousin Aria selling forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens. Anton longs for a less questionable way of living in the world and by his late twenties has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager. Then a routine security check suggests that things are not quite what they appear. And Aria begins blackmailing him to do one last job for her. But the seemingly simple job proves to have profound and unexpected repercussions.