<DIV>Gaétan Soucy sets this acclaimed novel in a parallel-universe New York, just before the great stock market crash of 1929. Xavier X. Mortanse is an apprentice demolition worker who believes he's an immigrant from Hungary. By the time Xavier finds a singing frog in a miniature coffin, tries his luck on the vaudeville stage, and upsets a grandmaster chess match, Soucy has seduced readers into a netherworld of unforgettable eccentrics that riffs on chaos, corruption, and the surprising light of the human spirit.</DIV>