A decade ago, The Bonfire of the Vanities

defined an era--and established Tom

Wolfe as our prime fictional chronicler

of America at its most outrageous and

alive. Now the master is back with a

pitch-perfect coast-to-coast portrait of

our wild and woolly, no-holds-barred, multifarious

country on the cusp of the millennium.

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia--a racially mixed,

late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily

politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once

a college football star, now a late-middle aged Atlanta

conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last

hit up against reality. Charlie has a 29,000-acre

quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding

second wife--and a half-empty office complex

with a staggering load of debt.

Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young

father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker

Global Foods warehouse near Oakland and finds

himself spiraling into the lower depths of the

American legal system. And back in Atlanta, when

star Georgia Tech running back Fareek "the Cannon"

Fanon, a homegrown product of the city s slums, is

accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar

of the white establishment, upscale black

lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon

and help keep the city s delicate racial balance

from blowing sky-high.

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing

the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate

syndicates, the cast-off first wives of the corporate

elite--Wolfe shows us contemporary America with

all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our

most admired novelist. Charlie Croker s deliverance

from his tribulations provides an unforgettable

denouement to the most widely awaited, hilarious,

and telling novel America has seen in ages--

Tom Wolfe s outstanding achievement to date.