Free Nancy Esting

Fred Beshid

Inside a Pasadena coffee shop, a free-spirited artist model and a reserved astrobiologist entangle themselves in conversation...and the fabric of reality.

Forced to share a table, strangers Nancy and Spencer can't help but talk to each other, leading to a debate over the pros and cons of scientific objectivity and artistic value. While their philosophical differences are immediately apparent, they eventually discover that they have a common preoccupation: the mysteries of the universe.

Each tries convincing the other that their own view is superior, but their discussion generates more questions than answers as a complicated bond forms between them—or perhaps it is just their ensnarling line of inquiry?

With a tip of the private investigator's hat and a nod to Rom-Coms, along with a dash of Iranian mysticism, Free Nancy Esting celebrates the lives of two Southern California denizens— turning common stereotypes upside down with the exhilarating fact of our complicated (and yet very simple) existence.

Praise for Free Nancy Esting

"A novel conversation becomes a conversation as novel in this beguiling and erudite encounter between a blabbermouth who has taken a vow of silence and an erstwhile astrobiologist. The entire universe is explored over coffee, from abiogenesis to nude modeling, in a unique novel as mind-bending as a Zen Koan."

—Mark Haskell Smith, author of Rude Talk in Athens

"There’s something delightfully engrossing about Fred Beshid’s crazy, original book. The witty repartee in Free Nancy Esting is unfailingly intelligent and thought-provoking. In this dialogue novel, opposites repel and attract, and in so doing reveal unexpected truths about science and the soul."

—Héctor Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries and Our Migrant Souls

"Daring, hilarious, and more than a little perceptive about the boxes us humans trap ourselves in."

—Chip Jacobs, bestselling author of Arroyo and Smogtown

"Nancy and Spencer’s captivating meet-cute mind-meld scientifically proves opposites attract!"

—Paula Johnson, author of Flash Flood

"Whether they are discussing stardust or awkwardness, Free Nancy Esting explores living ourselves alive from our form and hearts rather than our analytical minds, and how we wish to live out our days. It is amusing, full of gentle wisdom, wry and will leave you feeling like—no, knowing— that you have been in the presence of something beautiful and fleeting-lasting. Mr. Beshid’s light touch throughout is elegance itself."

—Katayoon Zandvakili, author of Deer Table Legs