Pariah

After being humiliated in a highly publicized moment, comedian and movie star turned controversial congressman Hal C. Knight resigns from Congress, quits social media, and retreats to a remote beach on the Caribbean island of Vieques to wait out the furor. There he is approached by CIA agents seeking to recruit Hal to spy on one of his biggest fans, who happens to be the authoritarian president of a fictionalized Eastern European country called Bolrovia. Wanting to do something to redeem himself and with nothing left to lose, Hal agrees. While in Bolrovia he entertains the president and his guests, uncovers a major Russian data center, and accidentally outsmarts the Bolrovian head of security. Will Hal return home to a hero’s welcome? As the novel’s bumbling and impulsive hero, Hal is human in every way, with improv training that often works in his favor and rashness that might carry him to the brink of disaster.