Johnny Allan

Fiction. Alan and Amelia, a British couple in their early thirties, move to Queens in New York and, in their apartment building, come across Allan, a twenty-something of Guinean roots who quickly becomes for them the exemplar of American youth: aimless, photogenic...looking for meaning in a world that seems to have already happened. After dropping his cell phone and shattering its screen, Allan decides not to replace it, a decision that leads to his beginning to reject some of the things his generation treats as sacred: chiefly, their penchant for "merging self-documentation and experience...having decided they prefer life flat to round." In the spirit of The Great Gatsby, in JOHNNY ALLAN, Keller paints a new portrait of America and a new Lost Generation, a carnival of sensory delights, music, misapprehension and beauty. "A timeless and topical read."--Booklist "A deeply inventive and thoughtful novel that unfolds with astonishing grace...if you haven't read JOHNNY ALLAN yet, you're in for a treat."--Jenny Offill