Random House of Canada

From the incomparable David Rakoff comes a poignant, beautiful, witty and wise novel in verse that spans the 20th Century.

David Rakoff, who died earlier this year, built a deserved reputation as one of the finest and funniest essayists of our time. Written with humour, sympathy and tenderness, this intricately woven novel proves him to be the master of an altogether different art form.

Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish leaps cities and decades as Rakoff, a Canadian who became an American citizen, sings the song of his adoptive homeland--a country whose freedoms can be intoxicating, or brutal. Here the characters' lives are linked to each other by acts of generosity or cruelty. A critic once called Rakoff "magnificent," a word which perfectly describes this wonderful novel in verse.