The Extra Man

A hilarious novel from one America's funniest living writers - like a New York version of Withnail and I

Meet Louis Ives: well-groomed, romantic, and as captivating as an F. Scott Fitzgerald hero. Only this hero has a penchant for ladies' clothes, and he's lost his teaching post at Princeton's Pretty Brook Day School after an unfortunate incident involving a colleague's brassiere.

Meet Henry Harrison: former actor, brilliant but failed playwright, and a well-seasoned escort for New York City's women of means. He dances alone to Ethel Merman records, sneaks into operas, and performs his scrappy life with the dignity befitting a self-styled man of the world. What can this ageless Don Quixote of the Upper East Side have to offer a young gentleman such as Louis? What, indeed...

This is the kind of story that will first make you cry with laughter, then leave you misty-eyed from pathos, then make you cry with laughter all over again. It's a story of friendship and frustration, of cocktails and cross-dressing, and you should read it immediately!

About the Author

Jonathan Ames is the author of nine books including Wake Up, Sir! , and You Were Never Really Here! , both published by Pushkin Press. He also created the hit HBO comedy Bored to Death!, starring Ted Danson, Zach Galifianakis and Jason Schwartzman, and Blunt Talk!, starring Patrick Stewart. He has fought in two amateur boxing matches as 'The Herring Wonder'. He lives in Los Angeles.