by Patrick Wensink

Fake Fruit Factory is a stick-slapping, gut-punching comedic novel about the eccentric small town of Dyson, Ohio. 
When NASA determines an errant satellite will crash there, the town's young mayor uses the ensuing media circus to attract tourism and save his bankrupt rust belt community.

Unless, of course, the satellite completely wipes it from the map.

In Fake Fruit Factory, Wensink’s motley cast of characters are the heart of “America’s Boringest City.” Bo Rutili is Dyson’s twenty-six-year-old mayor, who relieves stress with copious doses of hand sanitizer. Donna “Urinating Bear” Queen uses her recent lottery spoils to convince the town she’s the only one who can save it. And Old Man Packwicz, Dyson’s aging ex-mayor, might finally save the town via a filet-mignon wielding, toilet paper-clad mummy.

Fake Fruit Factory hilariously captures the peculiarities of small town life through the story of a wacky community finding its place in contemporary America.

PRAISE FOR FAKE FRUIT FACTORY:
“It all sounds like Twin Peaks meets Scooby-Doo, and it is—but in the best possible way. Wensink lays bare the foibles of small-town life, but also its charms. His characters tumble off the page, in all their cartoonish glory, but there's empathy at the heart of the absurdity … Wensink loads his kinetic narrative with piercing irony as well as dry humor … For all its chaos, Fake Fruit Factory is tightly plotted and beautifully contained."
—NPR

"I like Patrick Wensink's work so much my heart had to issue its own cease-and-desist order."
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

"There are plenty of bastards in this world, but Patrick Wensink isn't one of them. Well, maybe. He is our Terry Southern and Paul Krassner and possibly one day even our own Jonathan Swift."
—Scott McClanahan, author of Hill William and Crapalachia

"Patrick Wensink's Fake Fruit Factory is a comedy machine, pumping out madcap action, large-scale disaster, and one strange character after another. Also, fake fruit."
—Owen King, author of Double Feature

"A small town rallies to beat ever worsening odds against survival in this madcap comic novel."
—Kirkus Review

"The greatest book about competing burger franchises since The Grapes of Wrath." 
—Amelia Gray, author of Threats: A Novel

ABOUT PATRICK WENSINK:
Patrick Wensink is the author of three works of fiction, including the bestselling Broken Piano for President, and a forthcoming essay collection. He frequently contributes to publications like New York Times, Oxford American, Salon, and Huffington Post. He once sold his own line of BBQ Sauce, was married in a doughnut shop, and got punched in the mouth so hard he lost a tooth. (Not all at the same time.) He lives in Louisville, KY with his wife and son.

PUBLICATION DETAILS:
Pages: 350
ISBN: 978-1940430560
Publication Date: September 2015