THE BARBARIAN PARADE

Or, Pursuit of the Un-American Dream
Kirby Gann | Author

• $14.95 | paperback
• 288 pages
• 1-58818-065-4
• Fiction

“A striking debut for a novelist of daring creativity and passion.”—Edmund White

the book

The Barbarian Parade is the story of Gabriel Toure barreling head-first into life as he is introduced to sex, soccer, and the changing dynamics of family relations. Gaby is a good boy with a wild streak in dogged pursuit of the elusive meanings of freedom and love. As a boy growing up in Montreux, Kentucky, he idolizes his father, a hardworking Southern man, "Smilin'" Ray, who is fond of the horse track and a drink with the boys. When Ray is sent to prison on false drug charges, Gaby, lustful for experience, breaks from what was once a close family to fulfill his restlessness, choosing to place his faith in his body and in the sport of soccer. He trains relentlessly, distancing himself from his alcoholic mother who slowly begins to fold under the pressure of keeping up the family business and raising her sons in her husband's absence. Gaby finds a role-model in an older player, Mies, who assists him in finding a professional job in the sport, which allows him to latch onto a wild succession of adventures that take him across the Eastern United States. His journey eventually brings him full circle again, and home, where he must come to terms with his family and his hometown. Written in prose that ranges from brutally honest to poetic, The Barbarian Parade—part The Adventures Of Augie March, part Bull Durham—is the story of an unlikely hero and a portrait of contemporary America, a country plagued with many dark realities, yet dizzy, like Gabriel himself, with a sense of unlimited possibility.

the author

Kirby Gann is a former semi-pro soccer player and bookseller who has lived throughout the United States and in Paris. He is the editor of A Fine Excess: Contemporary Literature at Play and his writing has appeared in American Writing, The Crescent Review, The Southern Indiana Review, and Witness. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky where he is in the band Jakeleg and is managing editor for Sarabande Books. This is his debut novel.

the praise

"A great story to tell, one that is by turns sensuous, carnal, tender, and often brutal. With its original theme and beautiful yet effortlessly composed language, The Barbarian Parade makes a striking debut for a novelist of daring creativity and passion."—Edmund White

"Kirby Gann’s first novel marks the debut of an important and vigorous new voice in fiction. This is so very much more than a coming of age story—it’s real and moving and true in the sense that good fiction is true: we see ourselves here."—Bret Lott, author of Jewel

"Kirby Gann's fearless first novel x-rays middle-class American youth as neglected by parents and seduced by the woman-using values of American sports. Far more distressing than The Catcher in the Rye but just as well-written, The Barbarian Parade is a compelling and memorable read."—Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife

"The Barbarian Parade pulls off an astonishing feat; it’s simultaneously hilarious and heart-breaking, evocative but never nostalgic, touching but never sentimental, and it manages to be not only poetic, but a great page-turner. Gabriel Toure is a remarkable character and this is a remarkable debut. Kirby Gann is an author who can go the distance."—Silas House, author of Clay’s Quilt and A Parchment of Leaves

"A soulful excavation around the foundation of a young life teetering but still standing, with all the requisite familial heartbreak, busted balls, and self-inflicted wounds that would tumble lesser erections. Gann pours it on, and the acceleration of this first novel ramped up this reader to see the next installment."—Mark Richard, author of The Ice at the Bottom of the World

"Kirby Gann's exciting debut, a brave and buoyant bildungsroman, tells one Kentucky boy's own story, with balls and heart and a fiery, hell-bent prose. Rousing and brutal, tender and wise, The Barbarian Parade is an original—a picaresque novel of and for our time."—Robin Lippincott, author of Mr. Dalloway

"Kirby Gann has written an evocative, gripping, and fearless first novel, one that peers out of the eyes of a child upon a very adult world. If you have ever watched a tornado snake out of a dark cloud, or a skydiver fall with a tangled chute, then you know what it is like to be utterly transfixed; Gann’s novel holds the reader in much the same way; he turns us into children watching mayhem, transfixed, horrified, and yet filled with wonder, a part of us not wanting the tornado to recede, not wanting the chute to open."—Lee Durkee, author of Rides of the Midway