Red Weather

“Pauls Toutonghi is such an original, it seems almost blasphemous to try comparing him to others, but here goes: Gary Shteyngart meets David Sedaris meets Frank McCourt. In other words, he’s whip-smart and hilarious and Red Weather is a guaranteed knockout.” —Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng

“Pauls Toutonghi’s vibrant first novel, lyrical and rich in human insight, celebrates the essential experience of the first-generation American, whose struggle for full nativeness is always joined within the dizzying, tragic, and exuberant campaign to become an adult.” —Ken Kalfus, author of The Commissariat of Enlightenment

“Pauls Toutonghi’s humor is imbued with a rare generosity of spirit. And, with his debut novel, he has written a moving and entertaining love letter to youth, to family, to his heritage, and, perhaps most important, to Milwaukee, a city that is woefully underrepresented in contemporary fiction.” —Adam Langer, author of Crossing California

“Red Weather introduces a wonderful new character to the world of fiction—Rudolfi Balodis—a hero, a thief, an ex-communist, an alcoholic, a janitor, a Latvian, a singer of the blues, and above all else a father. Pauls Toutonghi skillfully develops this comic tale of immigrants in Milwaukee into a first-rate novel about the conflicts, love, and ultimate understanding between fathers and sons. I laughed, I cried, I ate borscht.” —Hannah Tinti, author of Animal Crackers