By Chuck Palahniuk
Doubleday
Hardcover and Audio Cassette (Unabridged) Editions

What if you could kill someone simply by repeating a few lyrics in your head or outloud? What if you didn't even realize you were killing the people around you?

Lullaby Excerpt Back at the newsroom, everybody's quiet. People are whispering around the coffeemaker. People are listening with their mouths hanging open. Nobody's crying. Henderson catches me hanging my jacket and says, "You call Regent-Pacific Airlines about their crab lice?" And I say, nobody's saying anything until a suit is filed. And Henderson says, "Just so you know, you report to me now." He says, "Duncan's not just irresponsible. It turns out he's dead." ©2002 Chuck Palahniuk Published with permission from Doubleday

Carl Streator is a newspaper reporter who's been assigned a story on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. All of the deaths have one common link - an anthology of poems from around the world.

The culling song has embedded itself in Carl's brain. Before he knows it, people are dropping all around him.

As he tracks down other victims who have lost someone, he comes across a woman named Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent who repeatedly sells houses whose residents don't include people from this world. The two decide to join forces and destroy every book that features the culling song.

Some people have different plans for the powerful culling song. And they're willing to use a little manipulation of their own to get it.

Bookworm's Briefing
Chuck Palahniuk has written a novel that's not your ordinary, run of the mill fiction. The characters are very unique, not your typical cast. At times, this tale is pretty dark and if you're the sensitive type, this may not be the book for you.

But if you're up for an unusual tale, Palahniuk won't disappoint. And how can you not be intrigued by a book that has a dead bird illustration on the cover?