Paperback Original
Price: $18.50

A modern-day freighter ship is quarantined off the coast of Malaysia after its crew members contract the ebola virus from dining on roasted monkey. Realizing they will be stuck at anchor for several days, the captain proposes that the ten passengers write stories around daily themes. Luckily, the passengers are a group of literary-minded senior citizens intent upon honoring their writing skills. They decide they will use the immortal Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio as a guide, with each person producing one story a day for ten days.

Taken as a whole, these stories present a panorama of American life in the last three-fifths of the twentieth century. It took the author ten years to attempt this modern day Decameron.

Review:

"Panger's achievement, treating profound moral questions, is that he is able to indicate the relative gravity of various degrees of real culpability without in any way diminishing the importance of the smallest scruple."
-The Los Angeles Times on Search in Gomorrah

"An objective, sensitive depiction of the loneliness of dying; humane, not depressing, it is highly recommended..."
-Library Journal on The Dance of the Wild Mouse

"Panger deals seriously here with the concept of identity...Intricately plotted..."
-Publishers Weekly on The Mask of Abraham Morgenstern

"The events contained in the tale...make for fascinating reading largely because of Panger's skill as a storyteller."
-Detroit Free Press on Black Ulysses

Bio: From naval combat in WWII to the acquisition of four academic degrees, DANIEL PANGER has worked as a door-to-door salesman, juvenile probation officer, supervising consultant to California's anti-discrimination commission (FEPHC), and Unitarian minister. Panger is the author of well over forty titles so far.