The Mirage: in stores today!

Yes, I am excited.

Here’s a quick roundup of reviews so far:

• Publisher’s Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) — “Both entertaining and provocative, exactly what the best popular fiction should be.”
• io9.com — “An addictive, fascinating read, which keeps you guessing.”
• John Clute — “excellent”
• The Seattle Times— “One of the most daring 9/11-inspired novels to emerge after that horrific day more than a decade ago.”
• Locus magazine — “A Man in the High Castle for the age of global terror.”
• The Associated Press — “A unique and compelling read… the juxtaposition of realities provides keen insight into the real world.”
• The New York Post — “Like Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, in which Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for president, the premise behind Ruff’s alternate-history novel is chilling.”

The Mirage book tour kicks off on Thursday evening at 7 PM at the Elliott Bay Book Company. I’ll be doing a reading followed by an onstage conversation with The Stranger‘s Paul Constant. Then on Saturday at 1 PM I’ll be at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library — that event is sponsored by Secret Garden Bookshop. From there I’m off to Portland and Sunriver, Oregon. You can find the full schedule of my book tour events here.

A few other bits of publication related news:

I have a guest post up this week on the Seattle Public Library’s Shelf Talk blog. It’s here.

I’ve also written a Big Idea essay for John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, which should post on Thursday.

The nice folks at Schuler Books in Michigan, who hosted a dinner for me last month, are celebrating The Mirage‘s publication with an official Matt Ruff week. I’ll have a guest post up on their blog on Friday. In the meantime, if you’re in the neighborhood, why not drop by and ask if there are any new novels they’d recommend to you?

Big thanks to everyone for their support and good wishes. I’m going to go bounce off the walls some more now.