I had the distinct opportunity to meet the author of Kiss Me at a book festival in Toronto last year. This man is brilliant. His interesting life story is almost as wonderful and inspiring as his book. Mr.Pyper began writing during lectures at the University of Toronto when he was studying law. He would start his stories during the day and then tie them together at night. They are sheer brilliance! The stories are those of young twenty-somethings searching for meaning in various relationships (romantic, co-workers, family). The most wonderful story is the title story, Kiss Me. It is about a man who becomes horribly burned by a barbecue fire and must once again learn to love himself and accept the new life he has to adapt to. Truly insightful and totally inspiring. Don't pass up this book. It is wonderful.

Just when I thought that Lost Girls was a fluke for Pyper, a first time novelist, along comes his second effort, The Trade Mission, which has all the power of Lost Girls and is pure story from beginning to end.

It's a difficult book to put down. The plot unfolds at roughly the speed of light. The Trade Mission examines what happens when civilized (although emotionally damaged) people are thrown into an unfamiliar survival situation.

Great book!!

You may wish they didn't exist, but the main characters (heroes? anti-heroes?) of The Trade Mission are representative of their age and time and place -- more than that, damn if I didn't recognize myself in the way they thought, what was important to them, the way they saw their harsh "reality" at a remove, as though a movie or "interactive" game. Yes, the novel is exciting and brooding and suspenseful and gruesome at times, but it's also a fantastically spot-on characterization of a generation...MY generation. Who would have guessed that a book that nails twentysomething, 21st century North American psyche takes place in Brazil?

What I loved most about THE TRADE MISSION is the way it tellsa compelling, thrilling, thoughtful story, while at the same time tackling some of the most important questions that accompany living in the contemporary world: the negotiations between individual identity, technology, morality in an age when traditional moral guidance has all but disappeared. Pyper is a fine and original writer, to boot. This novel takes risks and succeeds, both at the level of its ideas and its language. It kept me up late with its narrative revelations and its insights. A huge -- albeit grisly -- pleasure!