The Desert Spring Movement is an absurdly funny yet ultimately serious novel composed of testimonies by global young people about art, creativity, and the cultural dysfunctions that influence pop culture and consumerism. Set in Barcelona, Las Vegas, New York, Berlin, and other locales, at the core of their stories is an enduring question: why make art? Arel Wiederholt Kassar offers answers, weaving together mystery, social comedy, and aesthetic philosophy in brilliantly textured epistles that recall the rebellious style of Roberto Bolaño and emotive force of Alejandro Zambra. The Desert Spring Movement is also just plain fun to read. —Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the Land and Dream City

Europe is tired. Its artists know it, so they leave. Written in darkly comic and philosophical prose, Arel Wiederholt Kassar's debut novel captures the feverish mood of contemporary America as it follows a group of young writers and artists attempting to reinvent themselves as Americans in Las Vegas. The country they encounter is full of hustlers, prophets, celebrities, and sudden revelations, and as their project of artistic rebirth collapses, they come to a troubling realization: America is not an idea you can understand. It's something that happens to you. —Ahmed Naji, author of Using Life and Rotten Evidence

Some say writing becomes ‘experimental’ when the experiment fails—so I will call Arel Wiederholt Kassar’s novel a triumph. Formally brave and sophisticated, the characters and lives of The Desert Spring Movement are fun, intriguing, and terribly alive.—Julia Kornberg, author of Berlin Atomized