A New Yorker Best Book of 2025 “Terrific . . . John le Carré meets Evelyn Waugh.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review) Set in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific during the outbreak of the Second World War, a darkly comic novel of intrigue, adventure, and the perils of self-invention from the author of The Torqued Man. In 1939, boys’ adventure writer Richard Halifax vanishes in the Pacific while sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco as part of the World’s Fair festivities. Hildegard Rauch, an émigré painter and the daughter of Germany’s greatest living writer in exile, finds her twin brother in a coma after an attempted suicide, leaving behind a mysterious note that sends her searching for the truth about her brother’s relationship with Richard Halifax and the dangerous secret he entrusted to the writer before his voyage. Simon Faulk, a British intelligence officer hunting Nazi spies in California, learns of the arrival of a mysterious American agent from across the Pacific, part of a joint German-Japanese operation. Told in the alternating voices of these three characters whose fates intersect, World Pacific is a madcap, quixotic tale that explores the many forms of shipwreck, exile, betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves in the fight to stay afloat. “Set at the beginning of the Second World War, this bracing and erudite novel weaves together three ostensibly unrelated plots. . . . As Mann intertwines these stories, his jaunty sentences combine propulsive humor with international intrigue.” - The New Yorker “The prospect of reviving a Halliburton-ish character and launching him into a maelstrom of spies, émigrés and double-dealers prove[s] irresistible to Mann, who demonstrate[s] a knack for comic thrillers." - New York Times Book Review “Terrific . . . John le Carré meets Evelyn Waugh . . . . Mann displays an extraordinary comedic gift for outlandish embellishment, and makes hay out of the incompetence and hubris on all sides of the impending war.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A fantastic, fanciful, and often extremely funny novel . . . [and] wonderfully inventive. . . . Along with being a quixotic tale of adventure complete with truth-telling sidekicks and wild goose chases, World Pacific is, like Mann’s first novel, a spy thriller of ingenious quality.” - San Francisco Chronicle "At once thrilling and comic, Mann’s novel is a rollicking ride." - Minneapolis Star Tribune “Start to finish, World Pacific is about our ongoing attempts to re-invent ourselves in order to survive another day. It is part history, part thriller, and part contemporary satire. Peter Mann has filled his new work with everything from a Chinese junk to a penal camp on Saipan, from a famous writer’s misappropriated diary to the Anti-Fascist Writers League, from rogue international agents to Sally Bent’s Nude Ranch. It is a madcap marvel.”  - Anniston Star “Far removed from the staid worlds of most historical fiction, this is a wonderfully comic, gripping, and intriguing novel—like All the Light We Cannot See , but with a wry, macabre humor—following three hugely different, yet brilliantly developed characters.” - Booklist “Mann brilliantly captures the betrayed ideals of the period of US neutrality as a boys’ adventure. . . . . There’s a touch of Chandleresque noir thrown in for good measure as well. For anyone willing to suspend disbelief in the vein of a boy storylover, enthralled by a tale of double-crossing and improbable daring and enlivened with Chaucerian ribaldry, this is a rollicking good read.” - Historical Novel Society “An intriguing, darkly comic novel of adventure and personal crisis, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Pacific on the eve of World War II. Mann crafts a clever fun work of fiction, drawing inspiration from actual historical figures to create a narrative that is as complex as it is captivating.” - MSN.com " World Pacific will appeal to readers seeking a sophisticated reading adventure." - Novels Alive “Writing with intelligence, style, and wit, Peter Mann has created two unforgettable characters and braided them together in a thrilling World War II story unlike any other.” - David Ebershoff, New York Times bestselling author of The 19th Wife and The Danish Girl, on The Torqued Man “I loved The Torqued Man , its riotous irreverence, its coiled suspense. It’s a brilliant, surprising novel, Don Quixote by way of le Carré.”  - Jess Walter, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions, on The Torqued Man "Clever genre elements and felicitous prose? Oh yes; this novel is the elusive cake that you are allowed to both have and eat." - New York Times Magazine on The Torqued Man “‘Vexing’ doesn’t begin to describe the intricate maneuverings of the two narrators in Peter Mann’s quick-witted World War II caper. But ‘compelling’ certainly does.” - New York Times Book Review on The Torqued Man "As the chapters alternate between the manuscripts