<DIV><B><p>?From Susie Wong to Madame Butterfly to Miss Saigon: you might think that we've had enough of American men adventuring, scoring, and coming undone in the Far East. But you'd be wrong. Gammarino's <I>Big in Japan</I> is a shrewd and lively book, sharp-eyed and unsparing in its account of a young American's good and very bad moments overseas. The writing is wired and the ultimate judgement is merciless. It's seductive and it's devastating.” ?PF Kluge, author of <I>Eddie and the Cruisers</I> and <I>Gone Tomorrow</I></B><BR><BR>While playing to lackluster crowds in their hometown of Philadelphia, progressive rock band Agenbite clings to the comforting half-truth that they're doing better in Japan. When their manager agrees to send them on a shoestring tour of that country, however, they're swiftly forced to give up their illusions and return stateside.<BR><BR>All by one of them, that is.<BR><BR>Brain Tedesco, the band's variously haunted chief composer, has fallen in love with a part-time sex worker?the first woman ever to have touched him?and his illusions have only just begun. What ensues is a Dantesque coming-of-age tale in which Brain must navigate the borderlands between fantasy and reality, past and present, sex and death?even as forces beyond his control conspire to undo him.<BR><BR>By turns compassionate and ruthless, erotic and grotesque, riotously serious and deadly funny, <I>Big in Japan</I> is a sparkling, gut-wrenching, face-melting debut novel.<BR></DIV>