Bad Monkeys

by Matt Ruff

  Louis Collins and the Book Club of Washington were my test audience for the first draft of Bad Monkeys’ opening chapters, and their positive response convinced me that this was indeed the book I wanted to be working on. Jennifer Smith, Christopher Bodan, and Zoe Stephenson read the finished manuscript and cleared up a few lingering questions. Zoe Stephenson also double-checked my Latin, and John Crowley triple-checked it. Anna Leube helped me with my German. Josh Spin answered my off-the-wall medical questions with his usual aplomb. Philip K. Dick, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, David Simon, Lawrence Sutin, Neal Stephenson, David Friedman, Bruce Schneier, Jan Harold Brunvand, Neil Steinberg, and the Reverend Jack Ruff provided inspiration, insight, and/or clever anecdotes. Thank you all.

  In the muse department, thanks to Pamela Sue Martin, Liz Phair, and Evil Willow.

  And finally, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts, whose grant of a Literature Fellowship helped buy me the time I needed to finish this novel. The government may not fight evil, but it does have its moments of grace.

  About the Author

  MATT RUFF WAS BORN IN NEW YORK City in 1965. His father was a hospital chaplain who descended from a line of peaceful Midwestern dairy farmers; his mother was a missionary’s daughter who grew up battling snakes and scorpions in the jungles of Brazil. Between the two of them, he received an interesting moral education.

  Ruff published his first novel, the cult classic Fool on the Hill, in 1988. His most recent novel, Set This House in Order, won the James Tiptree, Jr., Award, a Washington State Book Award, and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He is also the recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship.

  Ruff lives in Seattle with his wife, Lisa Gold.

  Visit Matt Ruff on the web at www.bymattruff.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Also by Matt Ruff

  Set This House in Order

  Fool on the Hill

  Sewer, Gas & Electric

  Credits

  Cover Design by Will Staehle

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  BAD MONKEYS. Copyright © 2007 by Matt Ruff. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © MAY 2007 ISBN: 9780061809880

  06 07 08 09 10

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