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The Facades is one of the most remarkable and talked-about debut novels in recent memory. Set in the once-great Midwestern city of Trude - a treacherous maze of convoluted shopping malls, barricaded libraries and elitist assisted-living homes - Eric Lundgren's novel follows a disconsolate legal clerk named Sven Norberg, who sets out to investigate the disappearance of his wife, the city's most celebrated mezzo-soprano. To track her down, he must descend into Trude's underworld and confront the menacing and bizarre citizens of his hometown- rebellious librarians, shifty music critics and the minister of an apocalyptic church who has recruited Norberg's teenage son. Written with boundless intelligence and razor-sharp wit, The Facades is a comic and existential mystery that unfolds at the urgent pace of a thriller. 'The Facades challenges your sense of the world you think you know and live in. It is a dazzling invention' Kathryn Davis, author of Duplex and The Thin Place 'Lundgren writes like a veteran in his prime, and The Facades is simply one of the best novels I've read in years, period' Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil 'Eric Lundgren has written exactly the kind of book I hope to stumble on, to be seized by, to be astonished by, to marvel at' Arthur Phillips, author of The Tragedy of Arthur and Prague