Disciple, From Crosstown to Oblivion

A speculative fiction novella from the New York Times–bestselling author, “a writer whose work transcends category and qualifies as serious literature” (Time).

Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Disciple is one of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Mosley entertainingly explores life's cosmic questions. From life's meaning to the nature of good and evil, these tales take us on speculative journeys beyond the reality we have come to know. In each tale someone in our world today is given insight into these long pondered mysteries. But how would the world really receive the answers?

Disciple

Hogarth “Trent” Tryman is a forty-two-year-old man working a dead-end data entry job. Though he lives alone and has no real friends besides his mother, he's grown quite content in his quiet life, burning away time with television, the internet, and video games. That all changes the night he receives a bizarre instant message on his computer from a man who calls himself Bron. At first he thinks it's a joke, but in just a matter of days Hogarth Tryman goes from a data-entry clerk to the head of a corporation. His fate is now in very powerful hands as he realizes he has become a pawn in a much larger game with unimaginable stakes—a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth.

“A gripping story . . . told by a master storyteller with a keen eye for depicting humanity and its frailty and faults.” —Black Girl Nerds

“Excellent insight into the human condition and how a regular person would react to a brave new world.” —Sfcrowsnest