The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards

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Written in a voice that is open, honest, and extremely witty, "The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards" is an elegantly-constructed novel that takes readers around the world with its elusive narrator and his two friends: the talented but unstable Julian McGann and the beautiful actress, Evelyn Demont.  Their journey of love and loss carries them to the rocky edge of the Grand Canyon, the posh hotels of Dubai, the crowded markets of Kumasi, and an abandoned Icelandic writer’s colony.

Be sure to check out the official book trailer on YouTube!

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"...with wry humor and a steady hand [...] The narrator's games never fail to entertain, even if he is constantly changing the rules."  - The New Yorker

"In [The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards], a resourceful young writer of limited means sets out to live an adventurous and limitless life. He circumnavigates the globe, encountering strange and improbable obstacles, but a strong narrative voice propels the story forward and unifies this exquisite corpse of a travel adventure. Frankly, it’s a lot of fun. " - BOMBlog

"[A] work that feels both classic and novel, a winking shuffle through narrative tropes that mines each for all the good it contains. It is, in short, a fantastic read, hopefully only the first of many to come from Jansma." - Maclean's

"It's a breathless work that celebrates literary tradition, while making a strong case that its author belongs on the shelf besides his forebears." - Time Out NY

"Jansma's wildly recursive fun house of a novel [...] there's plenty to relish in this noteworthy debut." - NPR Books

"Layered, nuanced and compulsively readable; a feat of linguistic legerdemain that treads perilously close to being just too clever for its own good — without ever actually crossing that line. A delight." - Chatelaine.com

"F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Wes Anderson [...] The novel strikes a chord on questions of authenticity, love, and ambition, and it reminds us that life is often out of our control, even if we're writing it down." - Village Voice

"...this mind-blowing spiral of a book will also appeal to anyone who enjoys their fiction as playful as it is intriguing." - Book Reporter

"The layers of the pastiche at work here are so intricately laid down that the disparate tones don’t jangle. They sing. [...] The truth of the matter is, it’s damn fun." - Pajiba

"...an enchanting, transfixing, and intricate codex of mirrors—an unabashedly pure, witty case study of literary fiction." - Tottenville Review 

"The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a masterful web of literary lies and metafiction." - Full-Stop

"The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards' intricate narrative game and its carbon-burning escapades add up to a novel that is wise about identity and aspiration, competitive storytelling, romantic obsession and the assertion that 'all these stories are true, only somewhere else.'" - Shelf Awareness

"...a clever, tightly paced novel of ever-upping stakes." - Vogue

"One of the best books of the year." - Jeff Glor, CBS Author Talk

"...a promising novelist." - New York Observer

"Kristopher Jansma is sure to be one of 2013’s new literary heavyweights." - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

"...a writer of extreme promise, who seems to belong to an older generation." - Electric Literature's Recommended Reading

"[A] slippery and energetic debut novel [...] rapid in pace, the language and details tightly controlled.[...] It’s tremendous fun, this book." - San Francisco Journal of Books

"[An] arresting debut [...] Jansma’s characters deftly explore the blurred lines between fact and fiction, discovering the shades of truth that lie in between." - Publisher's Weekly

“Jansma performs a veritable circus act here, cramming his first novel with literary allusions until it’s like a small car stuffed with clowns, who then first burst forth to cavort and turn balloons into poodles. This canny, seductive, and utterly transfixing tale about the magic of storytelling and the misery of writing is told by an itinerant, chameleonic writer who calls himself Nobody. ” - Booklist

"A writer to watch." - Library Journal

Leopards on "The Handsell" with Ron Hogan

#leopardspotting

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

"Hey! Did you find this galley riding the 2 train in New York City, sitting beside the Liberty Bell in Philly, or on the beach in San Diego? Welcome. The narrator of my book, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, has lost three novels over the course of his life, and friends of Leopards at Penguin and around the country have done the same. Check out #leopardspotting on Instagram to see where else we have traveled, or look for us on Tumblr at http://spottedleopards.tumblr.com/. Feel free to share a photo on Twitter or Instagram with the #leopardspotting hashtag and tell everyone where/how you found your copy. More than anything, we hope you read and enjoy!"

NEW! The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards

Check out this EarlyWord Chat with Nora Rawlinson and librarians nation-wide!

"The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is my new exhibit A for the defense of literary fiction. A great read -- a must read. Kristopher Jansma is more than the real-deal. He's made himself, with this book, essential."

- Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life

"Emblematic of its many delightful complexities, the writer-as-narrator of this exciting debut novel brings to mind both Holden Caulfield and Tom Ripley. This is a coming of age novel, albeit not an especially tender one; rather it is infused with wicked satire on the pursuits of wealth, fame and love. As if he were running the literary equivalent of a game of 3-card Monte,  Jansma's protagonist artfully charms and deceives his friends and readers as a means to revealing what is true. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a remarkably smart novel and it's great fun, too."

-- Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route

"Serious fun.  What romantic comedy used to be in the time of Shakespeare.  Not a breath of fresh air, but a gale."

--Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park

"Lies are as essential to our lives as truth, time, and love. With THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS, Kristopher Jansma escorts us through a carnival funhouse of literary mirrors where truth and lies are so delightfully melded that we, like the characters themselves, don’t care to distinguish between them. The result is a dynamic, imaginative adventure featuring a trio of characters that are constantly shifting, yet instantly recognizable, as endearing as they are flawed. But the true leopards of Jansma’s novel may be the deep questions crouching deftly within its pages. I, for one, may never regard my own reflection with quite the same certainty again."

-- Kenneth Slawenski, author of J.D. Salinger: A Life

"This novel is both a literary success and an easy read. It is a lot more than just an auspicious and fruitful debut. It would be a terrific novel no matter in what order in this author's oeuvre. Kristopher Jansma is a brilliant writer of energetic, original, intelligent, skillful and highly imaginative and hysterically funny fiction. Few writers of any age succeed in the chances he took with THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS. That he does so with such finesse, ease and maturity is astounding." 

-- Stephen Dixon, author of His Wife Leaves Him

"The brilliance of this novel slays me! With an extravagance of wit and grace, Kristopher Jansma has masterfully composed a chimerical, matroshka doll of a story as gripping as it is inventive, as moving as it is hilarious, populated with fascinating, singular characters about whom you long to know more and more and more. (Even the extras are drawn in pitch-perfect detail.) It reminded me of so many favorite novels, from David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten to Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, and yet it’s so deeply original that all comparisons fall out the window. This is the most fresh and exciting novel I’ve read in ages."                                     --Joanna Smith Rakoff,  author of A Fortunate Age

"Behold The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards: an eloquent, witty, and inventive debut novel about a promising young writer’s persistent quest to reinvent himself. Kristopher Jansma masterfully explores the ways in which we lie in order to grasp the most inexplicable truths in art, life, and love. The protagonist is a trickster—artist and con artist alike; he is Houdini, Tom Ripley and Hemingway rolled into one. But despite his web of lies, we can’t help but root for him all the way to the end. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a tour de force—a nest of Russian dolls, with stories within stories, each tale bringing us a little closer to some glimmer of the truth."

-- Mira Bartok, author of NBCC Award Winner, The Memory Palace

Clever, smart and beautifully written, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is not only a story about storytelling but also a true celebration of the art. At times hilarious and heart wrenching, Jansma has managed to produce a mind-bending and utterly unforgettable book.” 

-- Andrew Porter, Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award Winner of The Theory of Light and Matter.

"Light and airy, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a fun house of a novel about the outsized ambitions of authors and the sneaky power of storytelling.  Kristopher Jansma's debut is a whimsical round-the-world tour that recalls Calvino, Millhauser, and The Confidence Man.

-- Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster

"I'm afflicted, all I see are spots. I'm breaking out in spots. Have to work at the bookshop early in the morning. It's a good bookshop, back-breaking work, my knees are shot but oh the ARC's! I was feeling desperate, quietly desperate.Then Nicole, the bookshop owner, hands me your novel. She was saving it for herself but she gave it to me first. She knew I was on the brink I guess.  I'm afflicted with spots. Thank you for writing this novel! I feel the full strength of happiness, eudaimonia."

--Lisa at The Bookworm of Edwards,  Colorado

“The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is absolutely obsessed with itself, and it won't stop until you love it, too. Its characters hit far too close to home to make a reading experience completely comfortable. It's distressingly entertaining, and irresistible in most ways. It was sort of like the first time I tried soda. I would recommend it to anyone.”

--Ian Walters, Diesel Bookstore, Oakland, CA

“I just wanted to let you know that I finished The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards and I thought that it was AMAZING! I totally fell in love with this story, so intricate and full of the most interesting people and places. The writing felt profound, magical and thought provoking and the end! Wow! I have never read anything that so beautifully describes watches and our perception of time, the beauty of those first few pages really carries on throughout the book as he returns to the concept of time again and again.”

--Emily Cole, Copperfields Books, Sebastopol, CA

Here's what people at Viking and Penguin have been saying...

"As a Penguin rep in the San Francisco Bay area for twenty-three years, I've read a lot of debut fiction..  In all that time there have only been a handful of novels that have captivated me as much as The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards.  This is one of the best, smartest, most mind-bending--and often humorous--books I've read in a long, long time.  I literally could not put it down.  And when I finally did... I picked it up to re-read it.  Seriously.  It's that wonderful."

--Wendy Pearl, Sales Rep, Oakland, CA

"The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is full of whimsy, mirth and real love.  Kristopher Jansma has created a narrator that we never fully trust but I want to follow as he crosses the globe in search of the stories that he has lost.  It's unlike anything I have ever read but at the same time feels like a book I've loved forever."

--Andrew Dudley, Digital Account Manager

"It's been a long time since I fell in love with characters in a novel the way I did with Kristopher Jansma's in The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards.  I was reminded of Gatsby, Holden Caulfield and The Dead Poet's Society.  This is the best book I've read in years."

-- Ben Petrone, Associate Director of Publicity

"I didn't mean to go through The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards over a weekend, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop.  Just when you think you've got things figured out, you are transported not only to another part of the world, but a whole new side of the story."

-- Risa Chubinsky, Subsidary Rights Manager

"I think there's one line from The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards that describes it best: 'Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.' The truth is definitely fleeting in this story.  The one true thing I do know is that this is one of the best books I've ever read about what it's like to be young, to grow up, to fall in love with the wrong people (and to love and leave the right ones), and to accept who you are."

-- Chris Smythe, Digital Business Director

"Kristopher Jansma has managed an impressive bit of magic.  Somehow he has created a book that is both page-turning and thought-provoking; both beautifully written and gritty."

-- Timothy Lane, Subsidary Rights Coordinator

"The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards reminds me of my favorite pieces of magical realism, but it's the characters that have stayed with me.  The effect is kaleidoscopic, and it leaves the reader both dazzled and bereft each time the image shifts."

--Taylor Sperry, Editorial Assistant

"I read The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards twice.  Not only that, I savored it each time.  Jansma has built characters the way life builds people, with bricks made of experiences, impressions, flavors, misunderstandings, absurdities, broken hearts, compromises, laughter, moments of clarity, stretches of haze--characters who embody complexity so fully, it's as if I not only know, I've grown to know many versions of them.  Jansma can't write another book fast enough."

--Kristin Spang, Publishing Coordinator