Muzhduk the Ugli the Fourth is a 300-pound boulder-throwing mountain man from Siberia whose tribal homeland is stolen by an American lawyer out to build a butterfly conservatory for wealthy tourists. In order to restore his people’s land and honor, Muzhduk must travel to Harvard Law School to learn how to throw words instead of boulders. His anarchic adventures span continents, from Siberia to Cambridge to Africa, as he fights fellow students, Tuareg rebels, professors of law, dark magic, bureaucrats, heatstroke, postmodernists, and eventually time and space. A wild existential comedic romp, The Ugly tells the tale of a flawed and unlikely hero struggling against the machine that shapes the people who govern our world.
Best Book of 2016 Grand Prize winner, CAC17
Somerset Prize for best literary fiction of 2016
Indies 2016 Book of the Year double finalist (literary, humor), winners TBD
Best Books of 2016: Best Fiction, Entropy Magazine
The Best Fiction Books of 2016, Book Scrolling