各大媒體雜誌爭相選為必讀清單

 

　　「一個月之前我從來沒聽過Mateo Askaripour這個名字，但現在，他無論出了什麼，我都非常樂意買下來！」－華盛頓郵報

 

　　看仔細了，沒有人比一個身懷重任的黑人業務更厲害的了！

 

　　Darren跟母親一同住在布魯克林，她總是希望兒子可以不辜負精英高中畢業生代表的頭銜，好好地出人頭地。不過Darren真的沒什麼野心，他在曼哈頓某大樓底下的星巴克當個悠閒的咖啡師，每天跟女友Soraya約個會，回家能夠吃到媽媽的拿手好菜，就很滿足了。直到這天，他不經意地成功讓一個顧客買下了不在他選項中的飲料，而又這麼地剛好，這位顧客正是該大樓樓上一間全紐約現在最夯的新創科技公司老闆Rhett Daniels，他看上了Darren的推銷天份，決定招攬他到36樓這個精英業務團隊中。

 

　　Darren勉強地答應了Rhett的邀約，但來到這個團隊，身為唯一的黑人業務，他必須每天面對老闆跟同事們，說他有多像多像馬丁路德金、摩根費里曼等等這些有名黑人的「讚美」（問題是這些人長相天差地遠好嗎！）。他開始壓抑原本的性格，變得越來越「精英業務」派頭，成功、錢和名聲滲入他的生活，曾經親近的家人朋友卻越來越遠⋯⋯

 

　　當生活突然反噬，給了Darren一記當頭棒喝，他決定策動一個計劃。培養一群年輕有色人種的業務部隊，準備給這個業界來個絕地大反攻！

 

　　(文／博客來編譯)

 

　　A New York Times Bestseller

 

　　A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

 

　　“Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.”—Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys

 

　　“A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. Askaripour has announced himself as a major talent of the school of Ralph Ellison, Paul Beatty, Fran Ross, and Ishmael Reed. Full of quick pacing, frenetic energy, absurd—yet spot on—twists and turns, and some of the funniest similes I’ve ever read, this novel is both balm and bomb.”—Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People

 

　　For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

 

　　There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.

 

　　An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

 

　　After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

 

　　Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.


MATEO ASKARIPOUR was a 2018 Rhode Island Writers Colony writer-in-residence, and his writing has appeared in Entrepreneur, Lit Hub, Catapult, The Rumpus, Medium, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, and his favorite pastimes include bingeing music videos and movie trailers, drinking yerba mate, and dancing in his apartment. Black Buck is his debut novel. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @AskMateo.