<DIV><P><B>“Brock Clarke’s hilarious new novel starts out in rural Denmark, then takes us someplace really foreign and utterly weird: upstate New York. The parallel universe Clarke creates there is both our world and not, and like his baffled, yearning characters, we navigate it with surprise and wonder.” —Richard Russo, author of <I>Elsewhere</I></B><BR /><BR /> Take the format of a spy thriller, shape it around real-life incidents involving international terrorism, leaven it with dark, dry humor, toss in a love rectangle, give everybody a gun, and let everything play out in the outer reaches of upstate New York--there you have an idea of Brock Clarke’s new novel, <I>The Happiest People in the World.</I> It’s a darkly funny tale of paranoia and the all-American obsession with security and the conspiracies that threaten it, written in a tone that is simultaneously filled with wonder and anger in almost equal parts.<BR /><BR /> “Murder, arson, adultery, drugging and drinking, cruel politics--reading a book crammed with such activities can make the timid and yearning among us feel like the happiest people in the world.” —Edith Pearlman, author of <I>Binocular Vision</I><BR /><BR /> “[A] wonderful mixture of unexpected, sharp comedy and genuine empathy . . . [An] amazing book.” —Kevin Wilson, author of <I>The Family Fang</I><BR /><BR /> “Brilliant . . . <I>The Happiest People in the World</I> is as hilarious and thought-provoking as it is, ultimately, deadly, deadly serious.” —Peter Orner, author of <I>Esther Stories</I><BR /><BR /> “<I>The Happiest People in the World </I>is the funniest and smartest novel I have read in years.” —Hannah Tinti, author of <I>The Good Thief</I></P></DIV>