PUBLISHER: SOFT SKULL PRESS
PUBLICATION DATE: FALL 2006
AUTHOR: DAVID BRESKIN
ISBN:  1-933368-41-1
U.S. LIST PRICE: $24.95
HARDCOVER 8½ x 8½
PAGES: 192

USA – David Breskin may have written the world's first self-contextualizing turbo-novel, or turbo poem if you prefer.  Soft Skull Press is proud to release his Supermodel this Fall 2006. Speeding at you in a single extended sentence, it's the first epic poem of the Internet Age.  Epic poems need epic heroes—divine, fantastic creatures, whose larger than life exploits project the spirit of the times. Homer’s had Odysseus, Dante’s Beatrice, and now Breskin has bequeathed our celebrity-obsessed era its very own form-fitting ‘Supermodel.’  Loosely inspired by the story of tsunami survivor Petra Nemcova, the heroine of Supermodel is an outsized force of nature: fiercely competitive, intellectually curious, emotionally wounded, resolutely moral, and of course, ravishingly attractive—a globe-trotting innocent who exudes sexuality in every way, except the most intimate. As she clings to life in a palm tree, her story is revealed in a series of flashbacks which wing us from Middle East to Wild West, desert to tropics, country to city—all vividly described, in potent couplets, as paradises found and lost. Breskin peppers this dark comedy with unsettling wordplay, shrewd social commentary, and a reporter’s eye for the facts of life: his virtuosic writing matches the breathless pace and rich complexity of his heroine's travails.  But even as Breskin relates the supermodel’s tale, his master narrative is matched (and mocked!) by a cyber-Greek chorus of ‘found poetry’ sampled from the endless bubbling fountain of the Internet.  Presenting voices ranging from the Department of Defense to the Vagina Institute, from lad mags to cosmologists, this high-pitched whine of our information superhighway—complete with detours, roadblocks, and accidents that turn out not so accidental—slices across, diverges from, abuts, bridges over, and tunnels under his heroine's story in a radically new feat of literary dovetailing.  By intricately weaving together these two strands, line by line and page by page, Breskin creates a whole that is, somehow and all at once, sympathetic and satiric, profound and profane.  By melding a classic suspense yarn with an enthralling and disturbing meditation on our need for, and love for, models of all types, Supermodel presents something not just novel but intensely vivid: a lush portrait on a buzzing canvas. To interview David Breskin or for more information, press please contact Workhouse Publicity, Gina Garza at gina@workhousepr.com.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
David Breskin is the author of two previous books of poetry, Fresh Kills and Escape Velocity, as well as a novel, The Real Life Diary of a Boomtown Girl, and a collection of dialogues with directors, Inner Views: Filmmakers in Conversation.  His poetry has appeared in many magazines, including The New Yorker and The Paris Review.  He conceived, edited and produced RICHTER 858, a multimedia inquiry into the abstract work of Gerhard Richter.  His next book project is Dirty Baby, a collaboration with Ed Ruscha.  He lives in San Francisco.  

IMAGES
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MANDATORY CREDIT LINE
Supermodel by David Breskin (Soft Skull Press). Available at fine bookstores everywhere. For more information visit www.softskull.com