In & Oz


Published by The University of Chicago Press
An absorbing literary experiment by the McSweeney’s contributor and Mary Shelly Award-winning author of TOC: A New Media Novel.

Steve Tomasula is a novelist like no other; his experiments in narrative and design have won him a loyal following as well as a number of awards. Exemplifying Tomasula’s style, IN & OZ is a heady, avant-garde book, rooted in convincing characters even as it subverts the genre of novel and moves it forward.

IN & OZ is a novel of art, love, and auto mechanics. The story follows five different characters—an auto designer, photographer, musical composer, poet/sculptor, and mechanic—who live in two very different places: IN, a back-alley here and now; and OZ, which reflects the desire for somewhere better. As the residents of each place strive to fill the void in their lives through a variety of media—music, language, dirt, light, and automobiles—their stories begin to converge.

Tackling class relations, art, commerce, and language, Tomasula illumines our own world while lucidly building his own. IN & OZ is a tale of the human condition that is as visually compelling as it is moving; a novel not only for fiction lovers, but also for artists of all stripes.

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