Up Jumps the Devil

by Michael Poore

Overview

“The sustained comedy in this hilarious novel is equaled only by its heart, and the myriad ways there are for it to break. I love this book. Michael Poore writes like an angel.”
—Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish

John Scratch, the Devil himself, is the protagonist in this stunningly imaginative, sharp, funny, and tender novel, as he tricks, teases, and prods America to greatness in the hope of luring his lost love back down to Earth from Heaven. Up Pops the Devil is fiction with humor and heart, the kind of hilarious, off-beat, and original reading experience that fans of Chris Moore, Joe Hill, Chuck Palahniuk, and Jim Shepard would sell their souls for—a brilliant blending of the occult and the outrageous starring the anti-hero of anti-heroes, the one and only Prince of Darkness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062064417
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/03/2012
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	134,966
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Poore’s work has appeared in the Southern Review, the Carolina Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Fiction, StoryQuarterly, and Glimmer Train and has been nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. His 2009 story “Blood Dauber,” written with Nebula Award nominee Ted Kosmatka, appeared in Asimov’s and has been nominated for the prestigious Sturgeon Award. It also won the Reader’s Choice Award and was selected for inclusion in the 2010 Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology. Up Jumps the Devil is his first novel.

What People are Saying About This

Daniel Wallace

“The sustained comedy in this hilarious novel is equaled only by its heart, and the myriad ways there are for it to break. I love this book. Michael Poore writes like an angel.”

Patrick deWitt

“Part fable, part warped historical travelogue, Up Jumps the Devil is an inscrutably charming debut novel that poses the question: What if Satan wasn’t that bad a guy? I don’t know where Michael Poore came from, but I sure am glad he’s here.”

Editorial Reviews

In his skillfully plotted and richly metaphorical debut novel, Poore sweeps from the beginning of time to a media-obsessed, 21st-century America chronicling the Devil’s quest to “raise the civilizations of earth until they looked down on Heaven.” The Devil’s motivation is not to win the universe, but only his long-lost love, an angel who descended with him from heaven only to leave again because she felt life on Earth was too brutal. In his mission to make Earth a “smarter, shinier, braver place,” the Devil pops up in ancient Egypt, in Ben Franklin’s lab, on the 1776 battlefield beside George Washington, and in the White House with JFK. He also makes an appearance at Woodstock and on his own reality TV show. Though the novel makes many jumps through time and location, the love story at the core holds the work together. In Poore’s hands, the world’s oldest antagonist becomes an unlikely but thoroughly lovable hero. Agent: Michelle Brower, Folio Literary Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

The sustained comedy in this hilarious novel is equaled only by its heart, and the myriad ways there are for it to break. I love this book. Michael Poore writes like an angel.” — Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish

“Part fable, part warped historical travelogue, Up Jumps the Devil is an inscrutably charming debut novel that poses the question: What if Satan wasn’t that bad a guy? I don’t know where Michael Poore came from, but I sure am glad he’s here.” — Patrick deWitt, New York Times bestselling author of The Sisters Brothers

From the Publisher

Part fable, part warped historical travelogue, Up Jumps the Devil is an inscrutably charming debut novel that poses the question: What if Satan wasn’t that bad a guy? I don’t know where Michael Poore came from, but I sure am glad he’s here.

Patrick deWitt

The sustained comedy in this hilarious novel is equaled only by its heart, and the myriad ways there are for it to break. I love this book. Michael Poore writes like an angel.

Daniel Wallace