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The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

By George Saunders
Illustrated by Lane Smith

By George Saunders
Illustrated by Lane Smith

By George Saunders
Illustrated by Lane Smith

By George Saunders
Illustrated by Lane Smith

By George Saunders
Read by George Saunders

By George Saunders
Read by George Saunders

Best Seller
Hardcover $22.00

Nov 24, 2015 | ISBN 9780812989632

Ebook $7.99

Nov 24, 2015 | ISBN 9780812989649

Audiobook Download $10.00

May 28, 2019 | 41 Minutes

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    The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders
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    Nov 24, 2015 | ISBN 9780812989632

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      Nov 24, 2015 | ISBN 9780812989632

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    About The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

    From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community.
     
    In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone?
     
    Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.

    Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

    “In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly
     
    “Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly
     
    “A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

    About The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

    From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community.
     
    In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone?
     
    Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.

    Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

    “In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly
     
    “Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly
     
    “A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

    About The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

    Gappers will get your goat. Literally. If you don’t brush them off and return them to the ocean, whence they arrive every day, these bright orange, many-eyed creatures will cover your goats, and the goats will stop giving milk.

    In a village called Frip, goat’s milk was the entire economy. Three families lived there–the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her widowed father, who wanted everything to remain the same. It didn’t. One day, the Gappers, despite an average IQ of 3.7 (±.02), decided for a good reason to concentrate on Capable’s goats. Oh, how the Romos and Ronsens turned their backs on the gapper-ridden Capable! Oh, how they indeed lorded it over her! What kinds of creatures are we, one wonders, when such selfishness so often springs up so spontaneously among us?  

    And, given the coldness of her neighbors’ shoulders, what will Capable do about her Gapper plague, as her share of the economy dries up? Literally. The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, with a brilliant story by award-ridden short-story master George Saunders, answers that question. In doing so it tells a tale as ancient as the Bible and as modern as a memo from the Federal Reserve Board. And funnier than both–which isn’t saying all that much, admittedly. You don’t get to laugh and gaze in visual awe and pleasure all that often when the Golden Rule comes under such serious attack and such staunch defense as it did in Frip.

    An adult story for children, a children’s story for adults, an earthlings’ story for aliens, an oceanside fable for the landlocked, a capitalist tool for anarchists, a fish story for loaves, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip represents the classic instant of two young geniuses colliding and colluding. The result is–what else?–an instant classic!

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    About George Saunders

    George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, and the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He… More about George Saunders

    About Lane Smith

    Lane Smith is a five-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book award and a two-time Caldecott Honor recipient. In 2012 the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art named him a Carle Artist for “lifelong innovation in… More about Lane Smith

    About George Saunders

    George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, and the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He… More about George Saunders

    About Lane Smith

    Lane Smith is a five-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book award and a two-time Caldecott Honor recipient. In 2012 the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art named him a Carle Artist for “lifelong innovation in… More about Lane Smith

    About George Saunders

    George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, and the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He… More about George Saunders

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fairy Tales

    Hardcover | $22.00
    Published by Random House
    Nov 24, 2015 | 96 Pages | 5-1/2 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9780812989632

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fairy Tales

    Ebook | $7.99
    Published by Random House
    Nov 24, 2015 | 96 Pages | ISBN 9780812989649

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fairy Tales | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $10.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    May 28, 2019 | 41 Minutes | ISBN 9780593147146

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    Praise

    Praise for George Saunders
     
    “No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
     
    “Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time.”—Khaled Hosseini
     
    “George Saunders is a complete original. . . . There is no one better, no one more essential to our national sense of self and sanity.”—Dave Eggers
     
    “Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith
     
    Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
     
    “In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly
     
    “Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly
     
    “A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

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