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Gallo
Table of Contents
About The Book
From the award-winning author of Last Acts comes an elegant, hilarious redemption story in which our everyman hero, the aging professional bodybuilder Tom Gallo (the eleventh best bodybuilder in the world, he would clarify), plunges down a destructive path for a last shot at perfection.
"While many novelists are struggling to figure out how best to address the state of the nation—centerless, ridiculous, and terrifying, doomed yet trivial, dire yet unheroic—Sammartino seems to have cracked the code." —The New York Times Book Review
Veteran professional bodybuilder Tom Gallo still believes he can win it all. But his family disagrees. Yes: his wife, Lisa, and his sister, Debbie, have seen enough of his "art," and everyone is eager for the oft-injured, forty-something hustler to retire from the stage for good. But when a younger pro dies, Gallo gets the call to take his spot in the contest that will finally change his life—just not in the way he was hoping.
Gallo is an ode to the great literary portraits, in the tradition of Stoner by John Williams and The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy. Set in the suburban desert of Phoenix, Arizona, this distinctly American novel—both heartbreaking and absurd—is about ambition, addiction, faith, family, and mortality, and it marks the latest achievement by an extraordinary new talent.
"While many novelists are struggling to figure out how best to address the state of the nation—centerless, ridiculous, and terrifying, doomed yet trivial, dire yet unheroic—Sammartino seems to have cracked the code." —The New York Times Book Review
Veteran professional bodybuilder Tom Gallo still believes he can win it all. But his family disagrees. Yes: his wife, Lisa, and his sister, Debbie, have seen enough of his "art," and everyone is eager for the oft-injured, forty-something hustler to retire from the stage for good. But when a younger pro dies, Gallo gets the call to take his spot in the contest that will finally change his life—just not in the way he was hoping.
Gallo is an ode to the great literary portraits, in the tradition of Stoner by John Williams and The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy. Set in the suburban desert of Phoenix, Arizona, this distinctly American novel—both heartbreaking and absurd—is about ambition, addiction, faith, family, and mortality, and it marks the latest achievement by an extraordinary new talent.
About The Author
Photograph by Jonathan Aprea
Alexander Sammartino was born in Rhode Island and grew up in Arizona. His debut novel, Last Acts, won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, was chosen as a New York Times Editors' Choice and National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, and was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. He received his MFA from Syracuse University, and he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat. He is the 2026–2027 Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the New York Public Library's Cullman Center.
Product Details
- Publisher: Scribner (March 16, 2027)
- Length: 256 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668074374
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Raves and Reviews
Praise for Alexander Sammartino
"While many novelists are struggling to figure out how best to address the state of the nation — centerless, ridiculous and terrifying, doomed yet trivial, dire yet unheroic — Sammartino seems to have cracked the code.”—Dan Chaon, The New York Times Book Review
"There is so much grim humor in Sammartino's debut novel, such a keen eye for the details of rage and heartbreak, such empathy for humiliation, that we enjoy the ride, wincing and laughing along the way. The slings and arrows of his hero's outrageous fortune unfold always with a fine satirist's eye and ear."—Claude Peck, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Sammartino knows something deep about the dark heart of America that somehow doesn’t stop him from writing about it with genuine, goofy love."—George Saunders, author of Vigil
"Sammartino is precise, funny and will break your heart all at once."—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
"Spot-on about the dark societal carnival we’re all doing our best to survive.”—Jonathan Dee, author of Sugar Street
Praise for Alexander Sammartino
"While many novelists are struggling to figure out how best to address the state of the nation—centerless, ridiculous and terrifying, doomed yet trivial, dire yet unheroic—Sammartino seems to have cracked the code.”—Dan Chaon, The New York Times Book Review
"There is so much grim humor in Sammartino's debut novel, such a keen eye for the details of rage and heartbreak, such empathy for humiliation, that we enjoy the ride, wincing and laughing along the way. The slings and arrows of his hero's outrageous fortune unfold always with a fine satirist's eye and ear."—Claude Peck, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Sammartino knows something deep about the dark heart of America that somehow doesn’t stop him from writing about it with genuine, goofy love."—George Saunders, author of Vigil
"Sammartino is precise, funny and will break your heart all at once."—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
"Spot-on about the dark societal carnival we’re all doing our best to survive.”—Jonathan Dee, author of Sugar Street
Resources and Downloads
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Book Cover Image (jpg): Gallo
Hardcover 9781668074374
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Author Photo (jpg): Alexander Sammartino Photograph by Jonathan Aprea(0.1 MB)
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