Community Klepto: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Twenty-five-year-old Ann Josephson is a kleptomaniac who satisfies her compulsion by stealing from people at her gym. When a handsome stranger strikes up a treadmill conversation, Ann must battle her crippling social anxiety to avoid suspicion as the resident petty thief, but soon finds herself in over her head when she learns the strangers true identity.

Ann Josephson is a twenty-five-year-old sociopath whose compulsive kleptomania manifests itself in the most unlikely of places: the community center where she works out every day. The walls of the community center insulate her from the terrors of the outside world, which include her freelance work as a graphic artist; her socialite parents, who pay the better part of her living expenses; her therapist, who devotedly punches the clock; and the dark void of romantic relationships.

As Ann battles the inner demons that plague her millennial psyche, she must also battle the fiends that plague her at the gym: the loudly grunting beefcake who cant be bothered to drop his weights at a reasonable volume, the naked old lady in the locker room using a towel as butt floss, the housewife in yoga pants that obviate the need for yoga wheeling her double stroller up and down the indoor track. Set in suburban Kansas City in the early 2010s, Community Klepto a droll combination of Bridget Jones Diary and Choke makes incarnate the characters and shenanigans that go on in every gym in the world.

Reviews

. . . devilishly fun . . . A clever, endearing, and funny tale of one womans missteps and her efforts to atone.
Kirkus Reviews

In this quick-paced read, Hitchcock creates characters who are well developed and humorous. She weaves complex psychological topics with a lighthearted, romantic story line in a way that proves to be both entertaining and thought provoking.
Booklist

This book is incredibly charming; the droll descriptions of Anns fellow gym-goers and the mental gymnastics Ann is prepared to execute to justify her sociopathic antics will literally have you laughing out loud.
San Francisco Book Review

Hitchcocks writing is visual and her voice is satirical and wry. Community Klepto is a fun read.
LESLIE A. RASMUSSEN, award-winning author of After Happily Ever After

Filch some time to read this rompyoull lock up everything you own.
Marilyn Simon Rothstein, author of Crazy to Leave You

Community Kleptodraws you in from the first page. Funny and insightful, the story explores deeper issues about settling into adulthood in our complex and ever-changing society. Full of hilarious commentary on gym rats, soccer moms, and other suburbanites, this book will keep you turning pages all the way through. As the story examines complicated romanticsituations, it doesn't shy away from hard questions about what it takes to create a meaningful relationship. Hitchcocks latest is not to be missed!
Jacqueline Friedland, award-winning author of He Gets That From Meand That's Not a Thing

Part rom-com, part psychological profile, part redemption tale,Community Kleptois a swift read . . . . If you're in search of laughs, heart, and an honest look at the nonlinear path to self-improvement, pick this one up.

Austin Chronicle

Author Bio

Kelly I. Hitchcock is a literary fiction author and poet. She has published several poems, short stories, and creative non-fiction works in literary journals and is the author of the coming-of-age novel The Redheaded Stepchild, a semi-finalist in the literary category for The Kindle Book Reviews Best Indie Books of 2011, and Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Her work has appeared in Clackamas Literary Review and Foliate Oak Literary Journal, in anthologies by Line Zero and Alien Buddha Press, and more. Kelly holds a BA in creative writing from Missouri State University. She has five-year-old identical twins and a full-time job, so writing and picking up LEGO are the only other things she can devote herself to. She lives in the Austin, Texas area.