NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Victor Mancini's a medical school dropout with a problem. He needs to pay for elder care for his mother, who's got Alzheimer's. So he comes up with the perfect scam: pretending to choke in upscale restaurants and getting "saved" by fellow diners who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, offer him financial support.

Meanwhile, he cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops and spends his days working at Colonial Dunsboro, where his stoner colleagues are sentenced to the stocks for any deviation from the colonial lifestyle. Oh, yeah, and he's desperate to find the truth of his paternity, which his addled mother suggests may be divine.

"Puts a bleakly humorous spin on self-help, addiction recovery, and childhood trauma.... Funny mantra-like prose plows toward the mayhem it portends from the get-go." --The Village Voice

"Palahniuk has a vision that's distinctive. Like it or loathe it, Choke cannot be dismissed. Nor can its creator."
--Houston Chronicle

"Few contemporary writers mix the outrageous and the hilarious with greater zest.... Chuck Palahniuk's splenetic, anarchic glee makes him a worthy heir to Ken Kesey."
--Newsday

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