The Regional Office Is Under Attack!: A Novel
by Gonzales, Manuel
Read it!” —Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
"[R]eminded me that reading can be FUN.” *—B*uzzfeed
In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization—the Regional Office—and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.
Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah—who may or may not have a mechanical arm—fiercely devoted to the organization that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother’s sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose’s and Sarah’s stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.
Weaving in a brilliantly conceived mythology, fantastical magical powers, teenage crushes, and kinetic fight scenes, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is a seismically entertaining debut novel about revenge and allegiance and love.
From the Hardcover edition.
**Review
Praise for *The Regional Office Is Under Attack!*
“The Regional Office really IS under attack! This is not metaphor! It is a wry and propulsive work of inventive fiction by a terrific young writer! Read it!”
—Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
“Delightfully weird, weirdly delightful! Manuel Gonzales clearly has a labyrinth of a brain--all stuffed with monsters, trapdoors, and complicated heroes. Sign me up as a member of the fan club, please.”
—Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble and Magic for Beginners
“This book is a winged creation, and absolutely marvelous. Gonzales keeps turning the kaleidoscope to reveal the strangest, darkest, and most beautiful dimensions of human love, and the conversion of mechanical fury into living strength.”
—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
“The Regional Office, a shadowy organization of spooky oracles and superpowered middle management misfits, isn’t the only thing under attack in this tremendous debut novel. With exuberant prose and a corkscrew plot, Manuel Gonzales vanquishes artistic orthodoxies, tiresome genre boundaries and every humdrum narrative convention in sight, leaving in his wake a riveting story of secrets, betrayals, and vengeance!”
—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus
“Wild, visionary, ablaze with heart and riot, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is unforgettable—an epic love story that confronts our future with a howl and fireworks.”
—Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters
“The Regional Office is Under Attack! is wickedly subversive, suspenseful, and thoughtful, all at once—but most of all, it's just fun to read, from the first sentence to the last. Put down your expectations and pick up this book. It'll hit you like a lightning bolt.”
—Jess Row, author of Your Face in Mine
“A ridiculously fun story about love, as well as time and timing, both good and bad. And because of that, it’s also timely. The ending—with its deft glimpse at a hypothetical future—is alone worth the wild ride.”
— Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way
"[H]ighly entertaining… Wonderfully strange and fun, Gonzales’ novel follows both the women attacking and defending the Regional Office and how their lives intersect.” —Buzzfeed
"[A] wholly invented world rife with satire, absurdity, and somehow love and even warmth. With this debut novel, Gonzales... proves himself to be both a wonderful addition to a proud literary tradition (that of Vonnegut, Borges, Saunders, Bender, and Barthelme, et al) and a true original." —Lit Hub
“You may not be familiar with the name Manuel Gonzales, but once you’ve had the pleasure of delving into one of his out-of-the-ordinary literary creations, you won’t forget it… In his debut novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Gonzales conjures a futuristic world of super-powered female assassins… Backstory on each character and the Regional Office itself is delicately spliced between action-packed scenes, making this a wonderfully choreographed narrative. The moment you think you have a grasp on the truth about the Regional Office, Gonzales tosses in a twist that will have you questioning your understanding all over again… The amount of detail Gonzales infuses into this world makes it come alive in an engaging, quirky and delightful way, creating a perfect backdrop to a page-turning plot. Gonzales’ tale has something for every reader: Double agents! Secret romantic trysts! Conspiracy! Fight scenes! Friendships gone awry! At its core, however, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is ultimately a tale of vengeance—one during which you’ll find yourself struggling to choose a side.” —Bookpage
"You might want to get a firm grip on your socks before cracking open this one; otherwise, Gonzales is likely to knock them off. It's very difficult to categorize this mind-bending novel... it's pure excitement.... A brilliant genre-blender." —Booklist (STARRED review)
“The narrative not only bounces between perspectives in short, propelling chapters, but also pinballs in time . . . Gonzales writes with an abundance of imagination, riffing on comic book and pop culture plot lines and characters while adding his own unique perspective…there are moments of brilliance.” —Publishers Weekly
“A hyperkinetic sci-fi set piece along the lines of Die Hard seeded with paranormal elements cribbed from half a dozen other franchises and the absent-parent grudges that fuel any number of teen novels. … Genre enthusiasts will love the spooky cyberpunk spirit at play here, and resolute readers will be rewarded with an unexpected ending that ratchets up the action long after the Regional Office has been abandoned. A surprisingly erudite bit of sci-fi that throws in everything but the kitchen sink.” —Kirkus
Praise for The Miniature Wife
“Lucid and confident . . . because his prose is never sloppy and his rhythm is impeccable, Gonzales’s sentences unfold with an unusual smoothness . . . these stories showcase an exciting new voice. . . .” —*Aimee Bender, The New York Times Book Review*
“You know that feeling you get when you pick up a book and realize you are hearing a voice you have never heard before but will be hearing for a long time? I had that feeling on page 5. Please pick up this book—you will have that feeling. Dark, smart, and strange in a way that initially had me grasping for comparison but that ultimately revealed itself to be something new.” —Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“It’s easy to compare Manuel Gonzales to George Saunders, but it would be just as easy to compare him to Borges or Márquez or Aimee Bender. . . . He makes the extraordinary ordinary, and his playfulness is infectious.” —Benjamin Percy, Esquire
“These stories are wrought with forceful clarity, Borgesian inventiveness, and enchanting, devious wit—an unforgettable debut from a uniquely gifted writer.” —Wells Tower, author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
“These are beautiful, strange truths—mad, weird, funny, and unforgettable. Manuel Gonzales possesses a brand-new American literary voice. This is vital work from an exciting new writer.” —Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
About the Author
Manuel Gonzales is the author of the acclaimed story collection The Miniature Wife, winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. A graduate of the Columbia University Creative Writing Program, he teaches writing at the University of Kentucky and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has published fiction and nonfiction in Open City, Fence, One Story, Esquire, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and The Believer. Gonzales lives in Kentucky with his wife and two children.
"[R]eminded me that reading can be FUN.” *—B*uzzfeed
In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization—the Regional Office—and its coterie of super-powered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now, the Regional Office is under attack.
Recruited by a defector from within, Rose is a young assassin leading the attack, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah—who may or may not have a mechanical arm—fiercely devoted to the organization that took her in as a young woman in the wake of her mother’s sudden disappearance. On the day that the Regional Office is attacked, Rose’s and Sarah’s stories will overlap, their lives will collide, and the world as they know it just might end.
Weaving in a brilliantly conceived mythology, fantastical magical powers, teenage crushes, and kinetic fight scenes, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is a seismically entertaining debut novel about revenge and allegiance and love.
From the Hardcover edition.
**Review
Praise for *The Regional Office Is Under Attack!*
“The Regional Office really IS under attack! This is not metaphor! It is a wry and propulsive work of inventive fiction by a terrific young writer! Read it!”
—Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
“Delightfully weird, weirdly delightful! Manuel Gonzales clearly has a labyrinth of a brain--all stuffed with monsters, trapdoors, and complicated heroes. Sign me up as a member of the fan club, please.”
—Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble and Magic for Beginners
“This book is a winged creation, and absolutely marvelous. Gonzales keeps turning the kaleidoscope to reveal the strangest, darkest, and most beautiful dimensions of human love, and the conversion of mechanical fury into living strength.”
—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
“The Regional Office, a shadowy organization of spooky oracles and superpowered middle management misfits, isn’t the only thing under attack in this tremendous debut novel. With exuberant prose and a corkscrew plot, Manuel Gonzales vanquishes artistic orthodoxies, tiresome genre boundaries and every humdrum narrative convention in sight, leaving in his wake a riveting story of secrets, betrayals, and vengeance!”
—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus
“Wild, visionary, ablaze with heart and riot, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is unforgettable—an epic love story that confronts our future with a howl and fireworks.”
—Paul Yoon, author of Snow Hunters
“The Regional Office is Under Attack! is wickedly subversive, suspenseful, and thoughtful, all at once—but most of all, it's just fun to read, from the first sentence to the last. Put down your expectations and pick up this book. It'll hit you like a lightning bolt.”
—Jess Row, author of Your Face in Mine
“A ridiculously fun story about love, as well as time and timing, both good and bad. And because of that, it’s also timely. The ending—with its deft glimpse at a hypothetical future—is alone worth the wild ride.”
— Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way
"[H]ighly entertaining… Wonderfully strange and fun, Gonzales’ novel follows both the women attacking and defending the Regional Office and how their lives intersect.” —Buzzfeed
"[A] wholly invented world rife with satire, absurdity, and somehow love and even warmth. With this debut novel, Gonzales... proves himself to be both a wonderful addition to a proud literary tradition (that of Vonnegut, Borges, Saunders, Bender, and Barthelme, et al) and a true original." —Lit Hub
“You may not be familiar with the name Manuel Gonzales, but once you’ve had the pleasure of delving into one of his out-of-the-ordinary literary creations, you won’t forget it… In his debut novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Gonzales conjures a futuristic world of super-powered female assassins… Backstory on each character and the Regional Office itself is delicately spliced between action-packed scenes, making this a wonderfully choreographed narrative. The moment you think you have a grasp on the truth about the Regional Office, Gonzales tosses in a twist that will have you questioning your understanding all over again… The amount of detail Gonzales infuses into this world makes it come alive in an engaging, quirky and delightful way, creating a perfect backdrop to a page-turning plot. Gonzales’ tale has something for every reader: Double agents! Secret romantic trysts! Conspiracy! Fight scenes! Friendships gone awry! At its core, however, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! is ultimately a tale of vengeance—one during which you’ll find yourself struggling to choose a side.” —Bookpage
"You might want to get a firm grip on your socks before cracking open this one; otherwise, Gonzales is likely to knock them off. It's very difficult to categorize this mind-bending novel... it's pure excitement.... A brilliant genre-blender." —Booklist (STARRED review)
“The narrative not only bounces between perspectives in short, propelling chapters, but also pinballs in time . . . Gonzales writes with an abundance of imagination, riffing on comic book and pop culture plot lines and characters while adding his own unique perspective…there are moments of brilliance.” —Publishers Weekly
“A hyperkinetic sci-fi set piece along the lines of Die Hard seeded with paranormal elements cribbed from half a dozen other franchises and the absent-parent grudges that fuel any number of teen novels. … Genre enthusiasts will love the spooky cyberpunk spirit at play here, and resolute readers will be rewarded with an unexpected ending that ratchets up the action long after the Regional Office has been abandoned. A surprisingly erudite bit of sci-fi that throws in everything but the kitchen sink.” —Kirkus
Praise for The Miniature Wife
“Lucid and confident . . . because his prose is never sloppy and his rhythm is impeccable, Gonzales’s sentences unfold with an unusual smoothness . . . these stories showcase an exciting new voice. . . .” —*Aimee Bender, The New York Times Book Review*
“You know that feeling you get when you pick up a book and realize you are hearing a voice you have never heard before but will be hearing for a long time? I had that feeling on page 5. Please pick up this book—you will have that feeling. Dark, smart, and strange in a way that initially had me grasping for comparison but that ultimately revealed itself to be something new.” —Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“It’s easy to compare Manuel Gonzales to George Saunders, but it would be just as easy to compare him to Borges or Márquez or Aimee Bender. . . . He makes the extraordinary ordinary, and his playfulness is infectious.” —Benjamin Percy, Esquire
“These stories are wrought with forceful clarity, Borgesian inventiveness, and enchanting, devious wit—an unforgettable debut from a uniquely gifted writer.” —Wells Tower, author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
“These are beautiful, strange truths—mad, weird, funny, and unforgettable. Manuel Gonzales possesses a brand-new American literary voice. This is vital work from an exciting new writer.” —Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
About the Author
Manuel Gonzales is the author of the acclaimed story collection The Miniature Wife, winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. A graduate of the Columbia University Creative Writing Program, he teaches writing at the University of Kentucky and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He has published fiction and nonfiction in Open City, Fence, One Story, Esquire, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and The Believer. Gonzales lives in Kentucky with his wife and two children.