As much a warm and witty story about a young man trying to find out who he is as it isa profound exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards heralds Jansma as a bold, new American voice.


Winner of the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award
Honorable Mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award

"F. Scott Fitzgerald meets Wes Anderson" (The Village Voice) in this inventive and witty debut about a young man's quest to become a writer and the misadventures in life and love that take him around the globe-from the author of Why We Came to the City

As early as he can remember, the narrator of this remarkable novel has wanted to become a writer. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma's hopelessly unreliable-yet hopelessly earnest-narrator will be haunted by the success of his greatest friend and literary rival, the brilliant Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. A profound exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, this delightful picaresque tale heralds Jansma as a bold, new American voice.