Frisco Pigeon Mambo

"Jonathan Livingston Seagull as imagined by the Marx brothers". That's one take on Frisco Pigeon Mambo, an uproarious new comic novel by C.D. Payne, author of the cult classic Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp.

When a flock of alcohol- and tobacco-addicted lab pigeons are liberated in San Francisco, our feathered heroes turn the whole city topsy-turvy. They dance into bars, stick up liquor stores, spy on socialites, swipe a van full of cats, and even dodge a murder rap.

Meet the leader who's convinced he's human because "it would be too absurd to name a pigeon Robin". Will Robin and his pals find their way back to Berkeley? Will they survive the next 15 minutes without a cigarette?

Along the way, these swashbuckling outlaws team up with Freud-quoting parakeet on the lam from a mental health clinic, a pigeon-devouring falcon with a sudden interest in religion, a halibut-wielding sea gull with a knack for shoplifting, and more. Soon they have a price on their heads, cops on their trail, beer on their breath, and amour on their minds.

Not since Hitchcock unleashed "The Birds" has California witnessed such mischief from the skies. But prepare for a surprise or two as the notorious "Killer Pigeons" undergo a dramatic transformation.

Described by the author as "America's great pigeon novel", Frisco Pigeon Mambo is now in development as a Twentieth-Century Fox animated film, to be produced by the Farrelly brothers ("Something About Mary", "Me, Myself & Irene"). Foreign rights to the novel have been sold so far to Germany (Droemer) and the Czech Republic (Jota).

Frisco is being published simultaneously with Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp. Thislong-awaited sequel to Payne's first novel continues the comic misadventures of the "world's most dangerous teen diarist".