Daphne Uviller

Super in the City, a Bantam Dell original trade paperback, is an urban caper about a Walter Mitty-ish young woman who becomes the super of her parents' Greenwich Village building. A love letter to New York City by a third generation native, the book also captures what New York Times columnist David Brooks termed the odyssey years -- those years of professional indecision and wandering that plague people in their 20s, 30s and beyond.

Inspired in teensy part by Kafka, Defoe, and Dickens, and in large part by James Thurber, Super in the City is everything you want in a smart, quick, delicious read.

"One should not simply read Super in the City; one should gobble it up like candy. This is particularly intelligent candy, mind you — but don't let that stop you from indulging in a big old sack of fun."

"Fun...sassy!"

"Witty and piquant."

"Part mystery, part screwball comedy, part sexcapade... and all entertaining."

“...gleefully unpretentious...gallops at full speed from the very first line... undoubtedly smarter and funnier than most other girls-in-the-city novels.”

“[Uviller has]...a polished lead character, an ear for snappy dialogue and a propulsive storytelling style...Funny, enjoyable caper about a dirty job and the unlikely young woman who takes it on.”

"Shockingly good from the get-go... Zephyr’s desperation, optimism, devotion, romanticism, quirkiness, depression, and resourcefulness come together to form a genuine character that truly shines....deliciously addictive... surprisingly meaningful, romantic, and fun...In Uviller, the genres of chick lit and mystery have found a new, evocative voice...My faith in fiction marketed to women has been restored.” -- Kelly Skinner

“Uviller’s prose style throughout is confident, funny, often sexy and wonderfully insightful...an impressive delight.” - Alan Cranis

"Daphne Uviller's new novel is not so much chick lit as lite fiction for the feminist-minded reader...This is fun fiction. It flies. And it's really funny. Best of all, Uviller has an amazing imagination that's reflected in Zephyr's frequent flights of fantasy through out the novel...Feminist and fast-moving." - Courtney Martin

In a city brimming with opportunities for heroism, twenty-seven-year-old Zephyr Zuckerman has often fantasized about committing acts of bravery that would make front-page news. Now she may get her big break — though it may require plunging a few toilets. When the superintendent of her parents' Greenwich Village brownstone is led away in handcuffs, unemployed Zephyr takes over his post and unleashes her inner sleuth. As she discovers titillating secrets about her tenants, she finds herself with a new reality far more intriguing than her imagination.

Soon, Zephyr has sussed out wrongs that stretch from losers on the Internet to art fraud and an international crime ring. The mob thinks she's in the FBI, and the FBI thinks she's in the mob — a predicament she needs to clear up fast. But perhaps not before a cute, surly exterminator helps her solve the mystery of what to do with the rest of her life.

Look for Super in the City in Germany (published by Heyne Verlag, see below) and in Spain (published by Esencia, part of the Planeta group)! You can also hear Super on CD, courtesy of Random House Books.