About the Author
by John Colapinto
HarperCollins, 2001

(From the publisher) Cal Cunninghman has always fantasized about being a novelist. But at 25, he's far from realizing his dream. Newly arrived in Manhattan, he toils as a bookstore stockboy, lives in a dire neighborhood, and never seems to write anything. How curious, then, that Cal should shortly publish a rollicking autobiographical novel that shoots to the top of bestseller lists and sells to the movies for a million dollars.

About the Author is Cal's first-person account of how he achieved this remarkable feat. A mysterious roommate, a timely bike accident, and the rapacious literary agent Blackie Yaeger all play a role in Cal's success. Deception, blackmail, and murder all play a role in Cal's desperate bid to hold onto that success.

Reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith's gripping Ripley novels, About the Author is a wickedly funny psychological thriller that not only casts a knowing eye on the excesses of the current Manhattan publishing world, but touches on deeper themes of literary envy, identity, guilt, and the fatal difference between reality and imagination.

About the author
John Colapinto's articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Us, and Rolling Stone. His book As Nature Made Him is based on a landmark article published in Rolling Stone that won the National Magazine Award. John Colapinto lives in New York City with his wife and son.