A Happy Ghost

One of the most beautiful emulations of contemporary life by a young author. Kirkus Reviews writes: "[A] masterfully imagined creation...unpredictability is the best part of this novel."

In Los Angeles, California, a receptionist named Andrei has been shattered by the hotel industry and its customers. His reality of darkness and luxury changes after he meets a guest who tells him to "live like a comet." Andrei considers: If we are placed on this planet at birth without permission, what is the most optimal way to live life? His daylong odyssey follows him navigating through Westwood and its people, theater, cafes, university, sidewalks, and gardens. A novel about adulthood, the fear of it, and a dreary 25-year-old who loathes his boredom and fiercely sets out to take every risk presented to him.

Fresh. Real. And Epic. This is a story with unforgettable dialogue and characters in the span of a single, extraordinary, possible day. Our narrator often dips in and out of strangers' lives for their reader to examine. Critics recall Kristian as an extraordinary thinker, Writer's Digest stating: "He [covers] a wide ambit of experience with flair and dexterity... [He is] absolutely soul-shattering to read in the very best ways."

Excerpt:

"Andrei was in an elusive period in life, much like a snow leopard. He'd spent a couple of years having successfully filtered out all that was terrible and ugly in his life, from old shoes to lifeless people. However, the purification finished and he had not yet found the glint of gold to replace the damned. He had nowhere to place his lifted foot. Instead, his moral foot hovered, awkwardly, a crepuscular flesh, trembling every night, unable to set itself in a correct place. He lived in that hanging imbalance every day, and some would say this period of searching takes a while. But to him, all it did was take. Not a while. The peace of his life just takes. And takes. And takes. While Andrei may not suffer from the heat of stress or common negativity that improperly placed feet do, he lived cold, in a void, without the luxury of finding a worthy arrangement for his leopard paw."