SHINING CITY: A Novel
By Seth Greenland
Bloomsbury USA
Publication Date: July 2008
Contact: Megan Beatie, 818-678-6288

When award-winning playwright and screenwriter Seth Greenland debuted his darkly funny and wicked satire of the comedy business, The Bones, critics called the book a “pitch-perfect send-up” (Publishers Weekly, starred), a “hilarious meditation on selling out in Hollywood” (Los Angeles magazine), a “terrific first novel” (Entertainment Weekly), and one that’s “funny, fast-paced, and cuts to the hollow heart of Hollywood” (Portland Oregonian).

Now, Greenland returns with his trademark razor-sharp wit to take on middle class malaise and skewer American culture in his new novel, SHINING CITY (Bloomsbury: July 8, 2008: $24.95, hardcover). When good guy Marcus Ripps takes over his black sheep brother’s lucrative dry cleaning business, he has no idea what he’s in for. Before long, he is running one of the most popular escort services in West Hollywood. As the money starts pouring in, he revitalizes his marriage, buys a new Mercedes, and gives his son a bar mitzvah he’ll never forget. But, when his conscience—and the law—starts to catch up with him, Marcus must decide if his sudden financial windfall is worth all the risk. Readers will have no idea what’s in store for Marcus in this hysterically funny and deliciously wild rollercoaster ride.

Seth Greenland, a transplanted New Yorker who now lives in west Los Angeles, has sold the film rights to SHINING CITY to Warner Brothers in a million dollar deal.