Most Popular Books by William Kotzwinkle

This World Fantasy Award winner in the vein of Animal Farm delves into a lab worthy of a mad Nazi scientist—but run by a brilliantly sadistic rodent. In the annals of American literature, there has never been a character quite like Doctor Rat, PhD. From one of the most indispensable storytellers in speculative fiction, this biting satire introduces a narrator of learned charm and humor, and a twisted logic that is absolutely chilling. Doctor Rat is a credit to his species. A survivor of the most refined scientific experiments, now removed from the maze, he has become a valued and productive member of the academic community. When he must administer a lethal dose, he comforts his fellow rats with his compassionate slogan: “Death is freedom.” But everything changes when animals worldwide begin to rebel, refusing to accept their proper places in the natural order of things: as test subjects, pets, or food. And only Doctor Rat has the courage to defend mankind from the ungrateful animal kingdom. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “dazzlingly original” and “occasionally quite beautiful,” Doctor Rat is a sly and stylish indictment of fanaticism in mice and men. “A truly imaginative impresario . . . [Doctor Rat] teases your conscience with educated wit and versatile improvisation, not to mention the casual flick of the tail about to be cut off.” —Kirkus Reviews

In this “psychological mind bender,” a Kafkaesque crisis of identity transports a famous actor from 1980s Hollywood to Nazi Germany (The Washington Post). At forty-five, Hollywood film star David Caspian should be basking in his success. Instead, his career is souring as he stresses over the next generation of actors eager to replace him. Losing himself in waking fantasies, David slips through a crack in time, awakening in the back alleys of Hitler’s Berlin. He is no longer David Caspian. He has become Felix, a ruthless black marketeer. With the Gestapo closing in on him, David races against time—and space—as he fights to take control of Felix before Felix takes control of him. Witty, macabre, and utterly thrilling, The Exile is a mesmerizing novel that will leave readers wondering where reality ends and fiction begins. People wrote that when William Kotzwinkle “is the author, readers can be sure only that the book in question will be different from everything else.” But even among the award-winning author’s work, this bracing satire stands out for the sweep of its vision, full of “comedy, despair, horror and technical storytelling delight” (The New York Times Book Review). “The book becomes glued to the reader’s hands as the devastating climactic scenes pile one on another. . . . Powerful writing.” —The Washington Post Book World

The story of a couple''s struggle to come to terms with the death of their newborn child.

Once upon a time in rural Maine, a big black bear found a briefcase under a tree. Hoping for food, he dragged it into the woods, only to find that all it held was the manuscript of a novel. He couldn’t eat it, but he did read it, and decided it wasn’t bad. Borrowing some clothes from a local store, and the name Hal Jam from the labels of his favorite foods he headed to New York to seek his fortune in the literary world. Then he took America by storm. The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a riotous, magical romp with the buoyant Hal Jam as he leaves the quiet, nurturing world of nature for the glittering, moneyed world of man. With a pitch-perfect comic voice and an eye for social satire to rival Swift or Wolfe, bestselling author William Kotzwinkle limns Hal’s hilarious journey to New York, Los Angeles, and the great sprawling country in between, where a bear makes good despite his animal instincts, and where money-hungry executives see not a hairy beast with a purloined novel, but a rough-hewn, soulful, media-perfect nature guy who just might be the next Hemingway. By turns sidesplittingly funny, stingingly ironic, and unexpectedly tender, The Bear Went Over the Mountain captures the zeitgeist of the 1990s dead-on, in a delicious bedtime story for grown-ups.

A boy discovers an extraterrestrial botanist in his mother''s vegetable patch, and helps him return to his planet, 3 million light years away.

The Return of Crazy Horseis the story of one of the last great chiefs of the Oglala Sioux, and of a sculptor''s determination to carve a huge statue of the fearless warrior into the Black Hills of South Dakota. William Kotzwinkle captures the sadness of the defeat of Crazy Horse and then takes readers to the site where, in 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski takes on the gargantuan task of sculpting Crazy Horse from a mountain. Kotzwinkle''s prose vividly describes the creation of a monumental work of art as well as the mystical certainty that Crazy Horse will ride again.

The book of the film E.T.

Warning: This book may cause flatulence. This is the Latin edition of the beloved New York Times Bestseller. Walter is a fine dog, except for one small problem: he has gas. He can''t help it; it''s just the way he is. Fortunately, the kids Billy and Betty love him regardless, but Father says he''s got to go! Poor Walter, he''s going to the dog pound tomorrow. And then, in the night, burglars strike. Walter has his chance to be a hero. A children''s beloved classic, this story will have kids rolling on the floor with laughter. Adults are permitted to laugh too.

The gentle extraterrestrial''s return to his home planet discloses that he has fallen out of favor with his colleagues, who try to prevent his journey back to Earth to provide spiritual guidance for his young friend Elliott.

From the award-winning legend of speculative fiction, “a witty sendup of the detective story” with “a richness of invention that doffs a hat to Dickens” (Chicago Tribune). At a fashionable salon, Parisians line up to have their fortunes told by Ric Lazare’s amazing machine. The predictions arrive with unerring accuracy, as if the invention were imbued with some sort of wondrous sorcery. The police, however, have a different opinion. They suspect that Lazare is a con man. Accordingly, they’ve sent one of their own to investigate. Unfortunately, the man they send is Paul Picard. His methods are unconventional. His appetites—for lemon tarts, and for prostitutes—are legendary. And he is no stranger to the dark side of Paris. But Inspector Picard is entirely unprepared for the string of murders that pulls him across the continent. As the killer’s seductive knot tightens around him, he learns once and for all that there’s more to the glimmering world of high society than first appears. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for his novel Doctor Rat, William Kotzwinkle reaffirms his reputation as one of the most captivating and original American authors of the last half-century with this “elegant entertainment” of magic and mystery in Paris (The Washington Post). “Gaudy, decadent, smoothly polished, this beguiling novel is . . . a feat of stage magic, well rehearsed and well performed by a fine craftsman.” —The New Yorker “Alternately dark and glittering . . . a first-rate vaudeville turn.” —Chicago Tribune “Pure magic.” —Playboy

"A Jimmy McShane mystery".

A farm boy who sets out to see the world battles a storm at the edge of the sea and encounters a crew of ghosts rising from the water.

A boy discovers an extraterrestrial botanist in his mother''s vegetable patch, and helps him return to his planet, 3 million light years away.

Deep within the Junk Moon, a group of scientists has uncovered the secret to immortality, but an interloper from another dimension is threatening this important discovery and time is running out for two heroes to prevent the end of the universe. Reprint.

A quick-witted insect sleuth, patterned after Sherlock Holmes, displays his brilliant powers of deduction in solving five mysteries.

A collection of fairy tales, including a tale of a wooden carousel that comes alive through the magic of a troll, and one of a butterfly catcher who dreams he becomes a butterfly.

Warning: This book may cause flatulence. This is the Spanish edition of the beloved New York Times best seller. Walter is a fine dog, except for one small problem: he has gas. He can''t help it; it''s just the way he is. Fortunately, the kids Billy and Betty love him regardless, but Father says he''s got to go! Poor Walter, he''s going to the dog pound tomorrow. And then, in the night, burglars strike. Walter has his chance to be a hero. A children''s beloved classic, this story will have kids rolling on the floor with laughter. Adults are permitted to laugh too.

A haunting and memorable modern mythical journey with an outrageous eroticism that has you baffled and entertained simultaneously. William Kotzwinkles classic ''grown up picture book'' ''Herr Nightingale And The Satin Woman'' combines an eerily beautiful love story against the backdrop of Germany, France, Egypt and China, as it follows a detective through Europe & beyond, in the aftermath of World War I, as he pursues a German officer and his companion; as the book progresses, the cast increasingly enters a surreal world; a haunting and memorable modern mythical journey with an outrageous eroticism that has the reader baffled and entertained simultaneously; this book tells just as much via Servello''s black and white noir-inspired illustrations as it does through the text itself.

When Walter the Farting Dog is sold for a measly ten pounds, Billy and Betty are distraught. But Walter doesn''t realise he''s been caught up in a dreadful plan involving a fake clown, litres of his unique farts and a bank robbery. Only Walter could be relied on to fart his way out of danger as wll as solving a bank robbery and becoming the town''s hero - even if a bit of a stinky one!

Reality is juggled with myth in three fantasies set in Paris, Pharaoh''s Egypt, and the world of hobos. From the author of cult classics The Fan Man, Fata Morganna and Doctor Rat. 30 line drawings.

Fantasist William Kotzwinkle takes readers on a wild ride in this thriller set in the sleazy world of the tabloids

The gentle extraterrestrial''s return to his home planet discloses that he has fallen out of favor with his colleagues, who try to prevent his journey to Earth to provide spiritual guidance for his young friend Elliott.

Describes a small Shaker community in Maine, discusses the origin and beliefs of the religion, and looks at the yearly routines of Shaker life

Charles Pickett, a young member of an anthropological expedition to Africa, fears that the group''s leader has been turned into a leopard by a local witch doctor.