"A Timeless Masterpiece" "A Landmark Literary Event" "A Genre-Defying Tour De Force" "A Masterpiece of Literary Fiction" "A Moral Reckoning" "A Panoramic Portrait of the American Experience" "A Literary Time Capsule and a Mirror" "Fearless, Thought-Provoking, and Utterly Absorbing" "A Must Read"
Critics and readers are raving about BAD AMERICANS aka The Great American Pandemic Novel, one of the most ambitious and innovative books of the decade!
PART I has won 12 Literary Honors: 4 Firebird Awards including Best Fiction Book and 1st Place in 3 subject categories; BestsellersWorld Award (1st Place); Pencraft Award; Literary Titan Gold Award; Wishing Shelf Award (Silver Medal); Reader Views Award (Bronze Medal); International Impact Book Award; Maxy Award (Finalist); Indies Today Award (Finalist).It's Summer 2020 and the Covid-19 Pandemic is raging. New York City has been locked down for months. 12 diverse Americans, lonely and single, are selected via a dating app competition by billionaire Olive Mixer to stay at his ornate Hamptons mansion complex for 12 nights.
During the day, the guests meet, compete, date, dine, flirt and fight. Each night, one must tell the group a story.
Their tales range widely in subject, style, length and decorum. Many stories respond to each other. They trigger passionate debate and fiery resistance. They change how characters perceive each other and affect the trajectory of the frame narrative.
All 12 stories can be enjoyed independently and were published as eBooks ahead of the publication of the frame novel released in two Parts. Please scroll down for the full release schedule.
In
BAD AMERICANS: PART I, you'll read the entertaining stories of: Andrea Mendoza, a front line nurse; Taylor Williams, a conservative former Army Lieutenant; Cathy Wei Quan, an idealistic social work student; Ricard Shaw, a QAnon-influenced biker; Rashan Hall, an elementary school teacher; and Nalini Shah, a privileged lawyer.
In
BAD AMERICANS: PART II, you'll hear from: Hayley Clark, a beautiful model; Pritesh Lakshmi, a neurotic engineer; Lisa Applebaum, a liberal blogger; Khassan Murdashev, an Uber driver and part-time comic; Sylvania, a seamstress and former fashion icon; and Angela Diaz, a hair salon operator.
BAD AMERICANS PARTS I & II are the next volumes in the anthology series THE HUMAN TRAGEDY. Kirkus Reviews said the first volume, GOOD AMERICANS, "speaks volumes about the human condition and modern life in America."
Publishing Schedule for BAD AMERICANS:
Individual internal stories released as Kindle eBooks:
"On the Frontlines" (aka Andrea's Story, novelette) -- March 15, 2025
"Immigrants Unite!" (aka Cathy's Story, spoken word poetic tale) -- April 15, 2025
"Corona Chaos" (aka Taylor's Story, short story) -- May 15, 2025
"Black Boy's Ballad" (aka Rashan's Story, novella) -- June 15, 2025
"Mason Mayhem" (aka Ricard's Story, novelette) -- July 15, 2025
"Love Liability" (aka Nalini's Story, novelette) -- August 15, 2025
Part One of Novel containing six stories above, in hardcover, paperback, and eBook format:
BAD AMERICANS PART I (frame novel with six stories) -- September 15, 2025
Individual internal stories released as Kindle eBooks:
"Barcelona Blasphemy" (aka Lisa's Story, novelette) -- October 15, 2025
"ISIS Crisis" (aka Khassan's Story, short story) -- November 15, 2025
"A Model Citizen" (aka Hayley's Story, novelette) -- December 15, 2025
"Cape Conundrum" (aka Pritesh's Story, novelette) -- January 15, 2026
"The Manchurian Algerian" (aka Sylvania's Story, novelette) -- February 15, 2026
"Dope Double Ditty" (aka Angela's Story, novella) -- March 15, 2026
Part Two of Novel containing six stories above, in hardcover, paperback, and eBook format:
BAD AMERICANS PART II (frame novel with six stories) -- April 15, 2026
Tejas Desai is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling international crime trilogy The Brotherhood Chronicle (2018-2020), which has won 17 literary honors and has been praised as "awe-inspiring," "breathtaking," "riveting" and "a must read that will keep you guessing." His panoramic portrait of American society, The Human Tragedy, includes the award-winning Good Americans (2013), which was praised by Kirkus Reviews as "a solid collection of rare caliber" that "speaks volumes about the human condition and modern life in America," and the groundbreaking pandemic novel with stories Bad Americans (2025-2026), called a "powerful rendering of the human experience uniting a divided America" by Publishers Weekly. The founder of The New Wei Literary Arts Collective and Movement, he has been profiled by numerous publications including HuffPost, Buzzfeed and The London Post. He attended Wesleyan University, University of Oxford and holds two Masters degrees, including a MFA in Creative Writing, from CUNY-Queens College. He was born, lives and writes in New York City, where he works as a supervising librarian for Queens Public Library.
