Naked Defiance is the story of a turn-of-the-century radical art group and its charismatic leader, written by one of its members, Florian Moore (probably a pseudonym), and which lands on the desk of novelist / editor Patrik Sampler, tasked with preparing Moore's manuscript for publication.
Unfolding as a report on an investigation into the death of the group’s leader Ganbold Mirzoyan while in police custody, Naked Defiance is a mystery about a series of public performances staged by the eponymous group, and the increasingly disturbing disruptions that its own interventions become subjected to.
Compelling story telling laced with dark social comedy, Naked Defiance is Patrik Sampler’s second novel. The Ocean Container, a dystopian eco-fiction, was published in 2017. He lives in the Vancouver area.
“The truest thing I can say about Naked Defiance is also the best compliment I could give to any novel: Naked Defiance is absolutely unlike anything else I have ever read. Patrik Sampler is astonishing in his originality and in his tough critique of common, complacent ways of living. Wickedly smart and disarmingly funny, Sampler is a writer to watch. His book comes as a welcome and necessary challenge to the miserable logic of capitalism.” -Angie Abdou, author of In Case I Go and This One Wild Life