Overview: Reality and delusion collide in this hilariously tragic story about one family’s absurd secrets and the dreams they hide. The Day Aunt Gina Came to Town is a literary black comedy that puts a playful spin on the idea that we are what we pretend to be.

Taking its cue from surrealist notions of a reality substantially conjured by the unconscious, this novel examines the private and separate ways we construct and experience our lives among those closest to us.

Verdict: The best way I can explain just how transformative to the mind, body and soul this new book truly is, allow me to give you a glimpse into what to expect as Aunt Gina.

Questions abound. Who is or isn’t Aunt Gina? Can she be found and, if so, where? When? What century? How many Aunt Gina’s are there? How many true, how many false? At its most essential formulation: is she or isn’t she? And for every question, a dozen theories or more.

Aunt Gina is nothing but a figment. Aunt Gina is real. Aunt Gina was real at one point, but is now symptomatic, of delusion. Aunt Gina was conjured for convenience but has become real, whether by coincidence or causality.

Aunt Gina is a thinly-veiled excuse. Aunt Gina’s use or disuse as an excuse neither impugns nor collaborates her tangibility. Aunt Gina exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion, like Santa Claus, and subject to the same caveats.

Aunt Gina has certain connections that preclude a dispostive identification under that name. Simply put, Aunt Gina is as real as a kick in the nuts!

The story - which is more like a set of colorful satirical stories, and which themselves follow a non-linear narrative - cleverly weaves together a canvas of unusual characters, such as a cabaret performer, a man whose mind is locked into the 1900’s, a son who has to become a mole man, and a telepath.

So, now with all that said, hopefully you are all more attune to what this book holds within its contemplative, dutifully crafted and wonderfully engaging pages. Pages chock full of humor, mystery and masterfully veined with an impassioned, heartfelt and unabashed wit.

About the Author - John Schoneboom is the founding editor of Bratum Books’ Uncommonalities series of short stories that share a common first line, to which he also shamelessly contributes his own efforts. He holds MAs in creative writing (Northumbria) and science, technology, and international affairs (George Washington University) and a BA focusing on US foreign policy in Central America (Hampshire College). Originally from New York, Schoneboom now resides in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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