Oddball sexuality, acts of perversion, and out-of-order behavior from the acclaimed Jamaican author of The Lunatic and Dog War.

How funny is this social satire? Akashic Books' pledge to our readers: Laugh out loud at least once or your money back. Seriously.

"Winkler has a fine ear for patois and dialogue, and a love of language that makes bawdy jokes crackle."
--New Yorker

"When was the last time you laughed out loud at a book, and I mean the hold-your-sides, near-hystercal-with-joy kind of laughter? Dog War is a pitch-perfect and truly uplifting read, wonderfully written with a flourish and an art that is like the best conversation. Winkler is the Prozac of literature, the true feel-good factor we seek in Oprah and the likes. You want to help somebody? . . . Give them Dog War, they'll be forever in your debt."
--Ken Bruen, author of The Guards

"Every country (if she's lucky) gets the Mark Twain she deserves, and Winkler is ours, bristling with savage Jamaican wit, heart-stopping compassion, and jaw-dropping humor all at once. And Dog War is his Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, except Precious is no yankee. She's a willful, stubborn, unintentionally funny Jamaican everywoman suddenly thrust into an America that's the opposite, always bending, twisting, and changing into shapes as confounding as they are hilarious. You don't read Dog War, you wait for the sparks to fly and hope they don't commit you for laughing out so loud for so long."
--Marlon James, author of John Crow's Devil

"Winkler never glosses over Jamaican deprivation, prejudice, and violence, yet the love of language--and the language of love--somehow conquers all. It's almost as if P.G. Wodehouse had strolled into the world of Bob Marley . . . Winkler's fiction magics the island into a place of rough-edged enchantment."
--The Independent (UK)

Baps, a Jamaican shopkeeper, drops dead unexpectedly one Saturday morning and finds himself being transported to heaven via a crowded minibus. Everything about Paradise that he had been raised to expect and believe, he finds to be utterly and completely wrong. For one thing, Paradise suspiciously resembles Jamaica. Baps has much to learn: about the afterlife, about God, about the distortions of established religion, and ultimately about humanity . . . With his characteristic outrageousness, and with more than a hint of postmodern playfulness, Winkler defies taboos and subverts conventional thinking in this entertaining, thought-provoking, and ultimately uplifting novel.

Anthony C. Winkler was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1942 and is widely recognized as one of the island's finest and most hilarious exports. His first novel, The Painted Canoe, was published in 1984 to critical acclaim. This was followed by The Lunatic (1987; Akashic Books, 2007), which was turned into a feature film, then The Great Yacht Race (1992), and Going Home to Teach (1995). A short story collection, The Annihilation of Fish and Other Stories, was published in 2004, and his latest novel, Dog War, was published in 2007 by Akashic Books. He lives with his wife in Atlanta, Georgia.