Valet : A Novel

For fans of Kevin Wilson and Andrew Sean Greer, a helper robot and his thirty-five-year-old ward embark on a madcap adventure to save the fate of the family company in this whimsically speculative ode to Wodehouses Jeeves and Wooster.

Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But thats easier said than done when he's tasked with helping his owners thirty-five-year-old son get out of his funk. Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didnt inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesnt have a masters degree, and he just cant seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. Hed rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time.

When Grayson learns of Charlottes plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. Its not just the family business at stake, its all the technologylike Cytheir dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would do: he steals the flash drive with his fathers most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant.

To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Graysons first real dateand her dogkeeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust.

A hilarious, madcap adventure that is as tender as it is insightful, Valet asks not just what it means to be human, but what it means to be family.