Hotel Bars and the Art of Being Conscious

Consciousness, experience & existence, friends & lovers, alcohol, meaning, life's journey-all the good stuff-are rolled together in August Delp's stunning debut. A Gen X coming-of-middle-age story, this novel will entertain and then linger in your thoughts long after the last page. Driven by equal parts character, plot, and ideas, this book should not be missed.

After dropping off her only son at a Swiss boarding school, independent and self-sufficient Daisy becomes a hotel bartender in order to pursue experience and search for meaning, looking to explore life's next stage. She befriends Coop, an advertising executive and bar patron, who is also a recent empty nester. Together, they attend a consciousness conference at which Daisy reconnects with Bianca, a neuroscientist and Daisy's college roommate from many years prior.

The brilliant and hyper-connected Bianca, once a rising star in the neuroscience world, has semi-secretly worked on the development of mind-control drugs for the last two decades. She is recruited by a billionaire software mogul to help free his niece from a Japanese cult.

In parallel storylines, Bianca battles the cult and Daisy undertakes a backpacking pilgrimage to find the meaning of life. The intertwined plots explore the nature of consciousness and its implications for the human experience.