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BIZARRE, PAGE-TURNING AND FRANKLY HYSTERICAL

Mark Chiusano

7 p.m. Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Conversation, Hearst Media Center, 645 Albany Shaker Road, Colonie
Registration required: https://thefabulist.eventbrite.com  

Mark Chiusano started covering Republican George Santos during his Congressional campaign in 2019 as a columnist and editorial writer at the Long Island daily newspaper, New York Newsday. His forthcoming book is The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos (Nov. 28, 2023).


The publisher calls it a “bizarre, page-turning, and frankly hysterical story.” George Santos said in a tweet, “I’m really hopeful that the reporter I’ve had blocked for over a year has a great imagination.” 

Mark Chiusano, The Fabulist book cover

Mark Chiusano's story collection Marine Park received a PEN/Hemingway Award honorable mention in 2015. His writing has appeared in places like The Atlantic, Time, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, The Drift, and Guernica, and he teaches at CUNY City Tech. 

Mark Chiusano, photo credit Charlotte Helen Alter

(Photo credit: Charlotte Helen Alter)

Presented in partnership with the Times Union.

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About the book 

From the dogged Long Island reporter who has been on his trail since 2019, the bizarre, page-turning, and frankly hysterical story of America’s most outrageous grifter—US Representative George Santos.

America has grown used to larger-than-life politicians: Teflon Don, AOC, MTG, Dark Brandon, and all the rest have injected DC politics with an unmistakable edge of celebrity flair and tabloid intrigue. Yet in 2022, a new player on the national scene outshone them all.

 

George Anthony Devolder Santos, and his revolving door of pseudonyms, shed glaring new light on how far we’d all let our politics slide as his claimed resume was shred to bits in the wake of a longshot run to office from New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

 

From Wall Street gigs to an amateur volleyball career, from embellished claims of Jewish heritage to a fabricated 9/11 story involving his mother’s death, Santos’s legend continued to grow as his web of lies evaporated in real time. And the only thing wilder than this charlatan embedding himself in the warm, consequence-evading arms of our nation’s capital was the Queens con artist’s refusal to bow his head in shame. The Santos show continues, as he joins the ranks of high-wattage fakers like Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes.

 

Mark Chiusano tells the full (well, as full as can be given the subject) story of Santos here for the first time. From humble years spent in Brazil, to glamorous nights on the west side of Manhattan, to the stunning small-time scams employed to ease his slippery climb up the American society ladder, The Fabulist tells a story you’ll have to read for yourself to believe…and even then, it’s George Santos, so who’s to say for sure.

Combining the very best of boots-on-the-ground journalism, dishy backroom dealings, and glittery details about Gold Coast mansions and bodice-baring drag shows, The Fabulist is truly stranger than fiction.
 

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