Hello. I am Daniel Handler, the author of this book. Did you know that authors often write the summaries of their books that appear here on the package? You might want to think of that the next time you read something like, “A dazzling page-turner, this novel shows an internationally acclaimed storyteller at the height of his astonishing powers.”

Adverbs is a novel about love — a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. At the start of the novel, Andrea is in love with David — or maybe it’s Joe — who instead falls in love with Peter in a taxi. At the end of the novel, it’s Joe who’s in the taxi, falling in love with Andrea, although it might not be Andrea, and in any case it might not be the same Andrea, as Andrea is a very common name. So is Allison, who is married to Adrian in the middle of the novel, although in the middle of the ocean she considers a fling with Keith and also with Steve, whom she meets in an automobile, unless it’s not the same Allison who meets the Snow Queen in a casino, or the same Steve who meets Eddie in the forest.

It might sound confusing, but that’s love, and as the author — me — says, “It is not the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done.” A dazzling page-turner, this novel shows an internationally acclaimed storyteller at the height of his astonishing powers.

Performed by Oliver Wyman