THE STALKER
A NOVEL FORTHCOMING MAY 27TH 2025
A darkly comic tale of an affluent and delusional young man who terrorizes his way through New York City's elite in the 1990s, from the acclaimed author of Tante Eva.
“The Stalker is an anything-goes work of art concerning the misadventures of a young wildman named Doughty, who’s two things: 1) Happy he got to yank you into his downward spiral 2) Always willing to say he’s sorry—NOT!! This is the kind of literary fiction (thrilling, demented, masterfully written) that will keep you reading into the wee hours and when you get to the end you’ll want to start it all over again.” — Bud Smith, author of Teenager and Work
"The Stalker is an impeccable character study of the least self aware man on earth. How often do we get to see a monster from his own vantage? With Paula Bomer in charge, a stylist of the highest order, I wanted to follow him anywhere. This novel is heart-pounding, endlessly entertaining, and in complete touch with humanity. Risky and brilliant, dark as hell and bitingly comic as only the masters can pull off. Be assured: Paula Bomer is a master of her craft. Rarely does a book come along that rearranges perception and sings with psychological acuity. Wholly satisfying to the final glorious moment. You just have to read it.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman and Godshot
About the Book
A young man combines boundless self-confidence and profound stupidity as he attempts to con his way through New York City in the early ’90s. You might call him an Untalented Mr. Ripley, a Dumb American Psycho—but even as his lies and delusions become increasingly absurd, the damage he inflicts is real and remorseless.
Robert Doughten Savile, aka “Doughty,” is the son of a once-wealthy, now hard-up family from Darien, Connecticut. Doughty lives in a perpetual cloud of delusion, convinced of his own genius, and certain that the wealth and high status that he believes to be his birthright are just around the corner. While he has little capacity to accurately assess his own abilities or prospects, he cruises through life on the sheer force of his own sense of entitlement, dropping out of college and landing in New York City in the early ‘90s, a city brimming with both prosperity and desperation. He cons his way from a bed at the YMCA to a posh Soho loft, and enters abusive, gaslighting relationships with a pair of women, a bartender and a middle-aged book editor. He spins elaborate tales about his imaginary high-power job in real estate while, in reality, he passes his days watching VHS tapes of George Carlin specials, smoking crack in Tompkins Square Park, and engaging in occasional sex work in the restrooms of Grand Central Station.
Fans of true crime podcasts about con men like Dirty John and Who the Hell Is Hamish? will revel in this novel and its portrait of the sociopath as a young loser. The Stalker is horrifying and illuminating, shocking yet hilarious, a novel that confirms Paula Bomer as a contemporary master of pitch-black comic fiction.
photo by Patricia Aquino
