Speaking English

Michael lives in a world where English always seems to be strained through a foreign accent. His Mexican-born wife, Sofi, calls him Miguelito; his Hungarian boss, Rudy, calls him Mischa; and he dodges thugs and seductresses in the Greek and Hispanic and Eastern European neighborhoods of Chicago's North Side where he works as a janitor. He once was a high-school Spanish teacher turned freelance travel writer, full of himself and living large, but his world and his mental health unraveled after he was kidnapped, shot, and almost killed while on a press junket to the Amazon. He is nursed back to health by rock-solid Sofi and taken under the wing of Rudy, the quick-witted, not-so-honest super of their apartment building. Michael's brother-in-law, Pauly, a font of funny, if impractical old-neighborhood advice, and Myron Clyne, a stand-up comedian with a smart and biting sense of humor, accompany him on his urban and international picaresque journeys. When Michael finally recovers physically and emotionally from his gunshot wounds, he lands a job teaching English to immigrants at a community college. Then his jungle assailant turns up as a student in class, and to keep from sinking back into madness, he plots revenge. "Michael Kiefer's prose sounds as immediate and true as a gunshot in a jungle. Speaking English is a tight, vivid slide into obsession, an unforgettable tale of love, violence and the complexities of revenge. It is a compelling page-turner that is also laugh-out-loud funny." --Barry Graham, author of The Book of Man and The Wrong Thing