Boccaccio in the Berkshires

Serial rights targeting Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Southern Review, Gulf Coast Print and digital publicity targeting NPR, Texas Monthly, Dallas Observer, The Atlantic, Public Books, The Rumpus, Bookforum, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Brooklyn Rail Promotion at Texas Book Festival and Brooklyn Book Festival Regional tour of readings and events pitched to independent bookstores and Texas cultural organizations Review copies sent targeting all major print and digital literary media outlets, reviewers, and booksellers; additional copies available upon request Promotion on the publisher’s website (deepvellum.org), Twitter feed (@deepvellum), and Facebook page (/deepvellum); publisher’s e-newsletter to booksellers and reviewers

In this deeply satirical homage to The Decameron, ten asymptomatic pandemic survivors shelter together in an Italianate mansion and form unexpected bonds as they tell each other stories to cope with the bizarre conditions of the modern world.Inspired by The Decameron and its dark and satirical novellas, Boccaccio in the Berkshires chronicles the foibles of seven women and three men, all in their twenties, who meet in an online chat room for asymptomatic pandemic survivors. They have all endured the deaths of loved ones and decide to shelter together for fourteen days in an Italianate mansion in the Berkshires, offered to the group rent-free. The vacant but furnished villa provides a luxurious, yet bizarre, setting for members of the chat room, who leave their homes in different cities around the United States. Over the course of their stay, they bond together in unexpected ways as they tell each other stories, ranging from the personal to the ludicrous, at times riffing on the absurdity of Boccaccio’s tales. A terrible storm fractures the group and forces the characters to come to terms with their own lives as they pursue love, faith, and the truth that medieval history ultimately reveals.