Unspent Time — Graham Parke

Warning: reading this novel may make you more attractive to the opposite sex and elevate your random luck by about 9.332%* (*These statements have not been evaluated by anyone of consequence.) From the award winning author of 'No Hope for Gomez ' comes a collection of 20 impossible tales. Permeating the cracks between the past and the present is the realm of Unspent Time. Pockets of 'should have been's and 'might have happened's. Time that was allotted but never spent. In this realm we find the stories that could have been true. Such as the story of Matthew G., who skip-stones through life on the back of mysterious black-outs, blinking in and out of conscious existence at random. Or the story of little Kiala, whose aunt and caretaker disappears one day, leaving her as the sole Huntress to battle the giant octopi to feed her village. Or the revealing tale of Goki Feng Ho: the ancient Chinese art of decoding the meaning of car license plates. And the heartbreaking story of the man responsible for choosing the colors of the insides of your shoes. As he toils away in obscurity, his work impacts society in ways we'll never fully comprehend. And let's not forget the story behind Unspent Time itself, the metaphysical ramifications of which will leave the scientific community feeling mostly indifferent about it for decades to come... Praise for 'No Hope for Gomez ': ..".challenges our perceptions about how we think and interact with the world around us." - Kirkus Discoveries "Extremely witty and clever writing that contains keen insights into human nature." - California Chronicle "The antics in this book will leave the reader laughing; Graham Parke is a genius." - Reader's Favorite