Julius Julius

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Summer • A Staff Pick at Boulder Bookstore, Carmichael''s Bookstore, Flying Books, Parnassus Books, Politics & Prose Bookstore, Thank You Bookshop, and Type Books

With biting wit, Aurora Stewart de Peña satirizes the creative industry she’s spent years in. From the people who brought you the invention of advertising comes Julius Julius, a rambling architectural wonder, outpost of the very first ad man of ancient Pompeii, built on the backs of generations of creative survivors who just want to lie on the floor of a conference room and cry about the lumber account without being sexually harassed.

A young, ambitious advertising maverick is sexually harassed by a ghost while trying to build an award-winning campaign for wood. A seasoned creative director confesses that his most famous work stars his best friend—who died while constructing the agency elevator. A socially anguished intern is furious that she’s not getting credit for the Fisherman Jack Tuna rebrand, which was her idea.

All are employees of Julius Julius, a labyrinthine architectural wonder—an outpost of thevery first ad man of ancient Pompeii—built on the backs of generations of creative survivors who just want to lie on the floor under the conference room table and cry. A trio of voices from different eras tells the story of the world’s oldest advertising agency,where the men in charge are deeply unexceptional, a 101-year-old archivist manages a cave full of ancient billboards, and there are bones in the walls.

This eerie, wry, and Lynchian tale wanders the halls and open-concept desk areas of the mythical agency, interrogating the process of stoking desire for a living. Stewart de Peña’s debut novel reveals the cracks in the veneers of creative industries—and the crisis of consciousness underneath—in a work full of compassion, humour, and blonde sausage dogs.