The Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning

Hallgrímur Helgason

2012

Artist Novel, 20.9 x 13.9 cm, 247 p., language : English, publisher : AmazonCrossing, Las Vegas, ISBN : 9781611091397.
Materials: Ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/586).

Literary synopsis

Tomislav Boksic, aka Toxic, is a professional hitman for the Croatian Mafia in New York. His record is near flawless, he has 66 killings on his CV, when killing number 67 proves to be a failure. The victim turns out to be an FBI guy. Forced to flee the States, Toxic finds himself at JFK at the beginning of the novel. There he spots the FBI waiting for him at the gate. He turns and hides in the men’s’ room, contemplating his moves, when out from one of the stalls comes another bald guy, who looks a bit like him. Being a pro, Toxic kills the bald man, takes on his clothes, ID, passport and air ticket. The dead one turns out to be a TV-evangelist from Richmond, Virginia, on his way to Iceland to preach on a local Christian TV station. So the Croatian hitman arrives in Reykjavik, disguised as a TV preacher. A classic tale of mistaken identities, the novel asks the question: Can the bad guy become good? It also offers an outsider’s view of Iceland, that according to the author was “a fun challenge: To write about my home country as if I had never been there before”.

Novel's website

Authorship: Artist Author.

Creative Strategy: No Link to Artworks.

Genre: Plain Fiction.

Publishing: Publishing House.

Theme: Fleeing, Identity, Religion, Violence.

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