Will Ferguson's bestselling debut novel—formerly known as Generica —is now an international publishing sensation, attracting kudos from critics and readers in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Ferguson is well known for his non-fiction hits such as How To Be Canadian , but here he turns his hand to fiction—with hilarious results.

Edwin de Valu, an overworked editor at Panderic Press, is in trouble. The weekly editorial meeting isn't going well and he needs a hit for the upcoming fall season. In desperation he presents a previously rejected self-help manuscript, "What I Learned On The Mountain," by Tupak Soiree.

Much to Edwin's chagrin, the project is accepted, and soon becomes the number-one bestseller of all time. But can this self-help book be the real thing? Dismayed by the plague of happiness that ensues, Edwin attempts to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Tupak Soiree and the book he has unleashed on our unsuspecting world.

Travel writer and novelist Will Ferguson is the author of several award-winning memoirs, including Beyond Belfast, about a 560-mile walk across Northern Ireland in the rain; Hitching Rides with Buddha, about an end-to-end journey across Japan by thumb; and most recently the humour collection Canadian Pie, which includes his travels from Yukon to PEI.

Ferguson's novels include Happiness™, a satire set in the world of self-help publishing, and Spanish Fly, a coming-of-age tale of con men and call girls set amid the jazz clubs of the Great Depression. His work, which has been published in more than twenty languages around the world, has been nominated for both an IMPAC Dublin Award and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and he is a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal.

www.willferguson.com

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WINNER OF THE LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR
WINNER OF THE CANADIAN AUTHORS AWARD FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH PRIZE
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Fun, well-paced, intelligent.” —Edmonton Journal
“Will Ferguson has written the ultimate satire on self-help books.” —The Washington Post

“Wonderfully assured, gleefully twisted, and deeply irreligious. . . . As moving as it is funny.” —Independent on Sunday

“A richly imagined and at times darkly humorous book.” —Publishers Weekly

"Gleefully nasty. . . . An uproarious, uneven farce about the publication of the only self-help book that actually helps—and thus brings about 'the end of the world (as we know it).' —Kirkus Reviews