Alex Shakar is an American novelist and short story writer. His novel Luminarium received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction. His first novel, The Savage Girl, was chosen as a "Notable Book" by The New York Times, was a Book Sense 76 Pick, and has been translated into six foreign languages.
In 1996, Shakar won the National Fiction Competition and the Independent Presses Editors' "Pick of the Year" for his first collection of short stories, City in Love. Set in a mythical version of New York City, the book reimagines transformation myths of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The stories are innovative in style and structure, and thematically concerned with the isolation and longing for connection of modern city dwellers. In 2001, Shakar’s first novel, The Savage Girl, was released to broad critical acclaim, garnering comparisons to Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Neal Stephenson, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Tom Wolfe. Set in a fictional American metropolis, the story follows its protagonist, Ursula Van Urden, as she trains as a trendspotter, attempts to help her schizophrenic fashion model sister Ivy, and understand a homeless girl she calls the “savage girl,” who lives in a city park. Among the book’s themes are consumerism and cultural schizophrenia. Shakar's novel Luminarium received acclaim for its "penetrating look at the uneasy intersection of technology and spirituality" . Set primarily in New York City, Luminarium follows Fred Brounian, a former co-CEO of a software company devoted to creating Utopian virtual worlds, as he copes with circumstances beyond his control. As the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Fred finds himself moving back in with his parents after his company is seized by a military contracting conglomerate and his brother falls into a coma. He soon finds himself participating in a neurological study that promises "peak" experiences and a newfound spiritual outlook on life. As the study progresses, lines between subject and experimenter blur, and reality becomes increasingly unstable. It won the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was selected as an "Editor's Choice" by The New York Times Book Review, and was ranked as among the best and most notable books of the year by numerous reviewers and media outlets including The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and NPR.
