Victor LaValle, who read at Brooklyn Reading Works, on Thursday night, is a hot new author. Well, he's not exactly new. He's already written two acclaimed books, "Slapboxing with Jesus" and "The Ecstatic." But his new book, "Big Machine," may propel him to literary stardom. Mark my words.

LaValle read a terrific excerpt from this new book, Big Machine on Thursday, which WOWED the crowd. And now I'm listening to LaValle being interviewed on  NPR and Jackie Lydon is saying it's not like anything she's ever read.

Here's what the book is about (from the publisher's blurb): a character named "Ricky Rice, a middle-aged, middling hustler,with a lingering junk habit, a bum knee and a haunted mind. The sole survivor of a suicide cult, he spends his days scraping by as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York, until one day a letter arrives reminging him of a vow he once made…"

On NPR, LaValle says of the book: "It's the wildest book you're going to read this year…I wanted to write a book of unqualified optimism. At the end, people are a little bit beaten, a little bit bruised, but hopeful."