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Odell Deefus, who's not the sharpest tool in the shed, has one goal: to "try my hardest to be a good soldier against the mad dog Islamites." But while driving to an army enlistment office in Callisto, Kansas, his '78 Chevy breaks down on the side of a country road, and it's only the beginning of his troubles.
When he accepts a local's offer of shelter until the car is repaired, things go from bad to worse—worse as in murder, drug dealers, tenacious televangelists . . . and finding himself a prime target of the FBI, which thinks he's a member of a terrorist sleeper cell. And none of it bodes well for his unrequited crush on Condoleezza Rice. But fear, rash judgments, and extreme reactions are simply the norm in a post-9/11 world. Odell will just have to deal with it.
"The plot has its patently absurd moments, but readers of a certain demographic (hint: they're not driving to the recruiter's office) will enjoy the romp." - Publishers Weekly.
"Starred Review. Funny, suspenseful, scary and, most importantly, the best portrayal of an American Innocent since Forrest Gump." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Callisto's roots lie in earlier anti-war fiction. Deefus's unholy innocence places him in a line of modern anti-heroes that starts with Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Schwejk, while the surreally paranoid government agencies recall the out-of-control war machine of Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Krol gives the tradition a contemporary take, extracting barbed comedy from state insanity." - The Independent (UK).
"Not everyone is going to like Torsten Krol's depiction of life in America or enjoy the book much for that reason. Unfortunately it's not always a pleasant thing to look in a mirror and see yourself on a particularly bad day, and that's what Torsten Krol has done. He caught America in the midst of a very bad day." - Blogcritics.org, Richard Marcus.
This information about Callisto was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Torsten Krol is an Australian writer resident in Queensland. He is the author of The Dolphin People (2006), a postmodern tale of two World War II-era German brothers lost in the South American jungle,[3] and Callisto (2007), a satire on modern day American attitudes to terrorism, post-9/11. Described as a recluse, Krol does not make personal appearances to promote his work.
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