The Shah of Texas brings the absurdity of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Joseph Heller's Catch-22 to early-2000s revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib. In the novel, Texas has declared itself anindependent nation from the United States and installed a Shah as its head of state. After years of war between Texas and America, journalist Adiel S.Thomas has uncovered torture by Texan soldiers. The Shah's government, led by the demi-Shah Dick Dick Dick Dick Dick and his silent assistant Scheissetete, scrambles to bury the news-and Adiel herself. Her investigations take her into the underbelly of the venal, violent Texan government and at cross purposes with the very journalists she once dreamed of being. Adiel connives her way into a car with the Shah himself, heading across the Texas plains. Meanwhile, the government uses self-interested media members to spread their propaganda. Can the exposure of torture and widespread violence shift the Texan nation toward peace? Will the Shah recognize the terror of his government and atone for its crimes?
