THE NOVEL

The Poker
Gods.

Some debts follow you into the afterlife.

In the cities and deserts between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, two gamblers pursue the promise of a life transformed. Behind them follows the friend they have betrayed—a dead man unwilling to leave the world, or his grievances, behind.

Police have shot Arman Rafielyan inside a Burger King. Sam and Trey have skipped his funeral and taken the $17,000 hidden beneath his mattress to enter the 2007 Poker Professionals Championship. To them, it is a fresh stake. To Arman, it is one last indignity.

Trapped between worlds, he moves through animals and people, drawing ever closer to his former friends. Meanwhile, the Poker Gods have offered Trey a day when he cannot lose. Between the promise of salvation and the appetite for revenge, no one has much room left for reason.

Darkly comic and touched by the impossible, The Poker Gods explores friendship, human frailty, and the stubborn possibility of hope.

Author

V.H. Mansurian

Setting

Southern California & Las Vegas, 2007

Fiction

Literary · Crime · Magical realism