Paradise, Nevada

Bloomsbury presents Paradise, Nevada by Dario Diofebi, read by Dan Bittner.
"Diofebi is an irreverent and audacious new voice."- Susan Choi, National Book Award-Winning author of TRUST EXERCISE
"Vegas has been right there forever, waiting for a great novelist, and Dario Diofebi has come dealing nothing but aces."-Darin Strauss, NBCC Award-Winning author of HALF A LIFE
From an exhilarating new literary voice-the story of four transplants braving the explosive political tensions behind the deceptive, spectacular, endlessly self-reinventing city of Las Vegas.
On Friday, May 1st, 2015 a bomb detonates in the infamous Positano Luxury Resort and Casino, a mammoth hotel (and exact replica of the Amalfi coast) on the Las Vegas Strip.
Six months prior, a crop of strivers converge on the desert city, attempting to make a home amidst the dizzying lights: Ray, a mathematically-minded high stakes professional poker player; Mary Ann, a clinically depressed cocktail waitress; Tom, a tourist from the working class suburbs of Rome, Italy; and Lindsay, a Mormon journalist for the Las Vegas Sun who dreams of a literary career. By chance and by design, they find themselves caught up in backroom schemes for personal and political power, and are thrown into the deep end of an even bigger fight for the soul of the paradoxical town.
A furiously rowdy and ricocheting saga about poker, happiness, class, and selflessness, Paradise, Nevada is a panoramic tour of America in miniature, a vertiginously beautiful systems novel where the bloody battles of neo-liberalism, immigration, labor, and family rage underneath Las Vegas' beguiling and strangely benevolent light. This exuberant debut marks the beginning of a significant career.

Dario Diofebi was born in Rome, Italy, in 1987. After a BA and an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Rome, he became a professional online poker player from age 22 to 26. After that, he was a traveling high stakes live poker player for another three years, mostly based in Las Vegas. He quit the game to pursue writing, and received an MFA from the NYU Creative Writing Program. He lives in Rome and Brooklyn, NY. Advertising & Promotions0 TOC0