An American author, Sal Seize, sparks riots in the streets of Bombay with an incendiary book, and is later imprisoned on charges stemming from his involvement in a racket to bribe Olympic officials to award the 2016 Games to the city of Chicago. While in prison, Seize begins to pen another book, one he believes eclipses his last in artistic candor and literary accomplishment. He draws on his dreams and experiences of the jail to inform his story, and he arrives at certain conclusions about himself and the insidious culture of imprisonment.
At times haunting, at others hilarious, Forty Short is a novel of purpose without pretense.