Book Spotlight with Chapter 1: Contract City by Mark Falkin

Contract City 
by Mark Falkin

Hardcover: 280 pages
Publisher: Bancroft Press (March 31, 2015)

Kindle Edition
File Size: 2317 KB
Print Length: 280 pages
Publisher: Bancroft Press (March 10, 2015)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.


About the book:

After the assassination of President Barack Obama seven years ago, after the riots that followed, riots so severe that martial law was implemented, in 2021, the nation has changed. And though things have changed, some things remain the same. Like many teenagers, seventeen year-old self-admitted film geek Sara Christie wants to be understood and escape her current life. Her family life is falling apart, due to her estrangement from her mother and the fact that it is clear that her parents are headed for a divorce; her high school social life isn’t doing much for her, even though she has a great friend in Nikki; and twin brother Adam is maniacally training for the big Army-sponsored gaming tournament. Her love life is, well, non-existent. 

But she’s passionate about film, and with her junior year coming to an end, she embarks on a summer during which she intends to make the documentary film needed for her college application to UCLA’s vaunted film program. She’s got the grades, the extracurriculars, and now, the perfect film subject: over the last few months, someone has been creating impactful, transgressive yet beautiful street art, graffiti mostly, all over her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city that has become the first fully privatized city in the country . . . and a police state. 

This new YA thriller by Mark Falkin is authentic, gritty, and riddled with important themes relevant to today’s real world. A politically charged YA debut brings up just what might be percolating under the surface of young America. 

Excerpt from Chapter 1

About the author:

Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mark Falkin graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and then the University of Oklahoma College of Law. 

By day he is a literary agent and recovering music attorney. He is the author of, Days of Grace, which was optioned for a film, and nominated for a literary award, The Needle Award, at POD-dy Mouth blog, where the reviewer said, “This is literature at its best . . . Falkin could easily be likened to the aforementioned Lethem or to Augusten Burroughs or even J.D. Salinger.” Bookpeople, said “Here’s more proof that Austin is home to some of the best new writers around . . . Falkin’s novel is reminiscent of the writing style found in Lethem, Sedaris, Coupland, and Kerouac, with his sharp wit and journalistic style.” He hopes to set the “YA Dystopian” genre on its ear with his new novel, Contract City.

Visit his website at http://www.markfalkin.com.

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