“One piece of traditional writer’s advice is ‘Give the devil the best lines’; Kirstin Allio has instead elected to give him the entire book, leaving the reader and her dear feral child of a protagonist, Daniel/Jubal, to fight their way free together through nests of dazzling, seductive, off-kilter language. The result is a superb exploration of the emotional condition of guru-drunkenness.”
—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and A Gambler’s Anatomy
“…well-crafted, complex, visceral…remarkable structure …an urgent bulletin from the front.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Buddhism for Western Children is insane. It’s a weird, fun, and horrifying dream… and the end is home to the best plot twist of 2018. Read the book and tell me if I’m wrong.”
—NewPages
“This is a beautifully written and poetic meditation on power, absurdity, community, and manipulation, and how one survives when all things collide in a powerful and threatening way.”
—Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses
”Kirstin Allio has written a novel full of indelible characters, wild scenes, incidental wisdom, and the best kinds of surprises. I fell entirely under the spell of her wonderful writing and of her outrageous, shameless guru; I would have followed him anywhere. Buddhism for Western Children is a sparkling, inventive, and deeply entertaining novel.”
—Margot Livesey, author of Mercury
“An enigmatic and fervent read.”
—Kirkus Reviews
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