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Fiction Literary

All-Day Breakfast

A Novel

by (author) Adam Lewis Schroeder

Publisher
Douglas & McIntyre
Initial publish date
Apr 2013
Category
Literary
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781771000208
    Publish Date
    Apr 2013
    List Price
    $22.95

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Description

When widowed father and substitute teacher Peter Giller leads an eleventh-grade class on a field trip to a plastics factory, he thinks the worst that could happen is that the parent volunteers won�t show up (they don�t), the kids will be rude (they are) or the free lunch will be terrible (it is).

Then a leaking pipe sprays Peter and the students with a mysterious pink goo and 'the worst that could happen' spikes from inconvenient to catastrophic. At first, the goo's side effects are mild: short-temperedness, sawdust-scented B.O. and an unquenchable craving for bacon. Then things get spooky: Peter's fingers start falling off, his students forget how to read, no one has to pee—ever—and empathy for human suffering plummets, especially if anyone gets between them and their bacon.

Peter can't figure out what's happening—surely he's not a zombie? At no time in any movie does a zombie drive a car and count on his reattached fingers the ways in which he is not a zombie, and anyway, Peter craves bacon, not brains. But normal people don't put their bodies back together with staple guns and thumbtacks, or contemplate biting off ears. Peter's definitely not fit to be around his children, and his mother-in-law 'temporarily' adopts them.

Peter's children are all he has left, and he�ll do anything to be with them again. He races across the country in a stolen ambulance to face down pinstriped bureaucrats, affectionate farm girls and monsters plucked from mythology in his search for the cure—if it exists—to his horrifying condition. All-Day Breakfast will satisfy all appetites for the visceral, the violent and the hilarious.

About the author

Adam Lewis Schroeder is the author of three previous books: Kingdom of Monkeys (Raincoast Books, 2001), Empress of Asia (Raincoast Books, 2006) and In the Fabled East (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), which was a finalist for the 2011 Commonwealth Writersí Prize for Best Book, Canada/Caribbean region, and chosen as one of Amazon.caís best books of the year. Schroeder currently lives in Penticton, BC, with his wife and two children. You can read more about him at adamlewisschroeder.com.

Adam Lewis Schroeder's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, ReLit Award for Best Novel

Editorial Reviews

"...It’s side-splitting...razor-sharp literary prose...Schroeder makes detached limbs and coagulated purple blood downright charming."

National Post

"However, the novel isn’t just "pure, goofy joy," as described by one reviewer. All-Day Breakfast also deals with some heavy subjects -- cancer, terminal illness, and the loss of a spouse."

Vernon Morning Star

"Adam Lewis Schroeder (The Empress of Asia; In the Fabled East; Kingdom of Monkeys) is one of Canada's great storytellers: engaging, witty, surprising. Schroeder credits his love of comics (The Walking Dead) for this surprise of a book -- a wild ride through zombie-land. So fasten your seatbelts for All-Day Breakfast, a long, strange trip through the deep weirdness of the American heartland...Schroeder's stylish zombie tale pretty well guarantees eye-popping outrageousness: All-Day Breakfast is a gross, hilarious, bacon-y pleasure."

Toronto Star

"...author's generously gory novel is coated in satire..."

Georgia Straight

"A funny and original take on the zombie genre."

CBC.ca

"...highly literary in its style and approach to events, though -- it’s the Canadian equivalent of DeLillo's White Noise and its Airborne Toxic Event."

The Province

"...this is a zombie story with its tongue firmly in its cheek…It’s that chafing between literary and goofball genre tropes that gives All-Day Breakfast much of its zing…All-Day Breakfast has the depth and care of a literary novel...pure, goofy joy."

Quill & Quire

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